Aftermath: A Story of Blended Clichés’
by Trimatter
Summary: 1st fanfic. Started out as a oneshot. The Sailor MoonRanma story arc is finished. The Tenchi arc is now finished. Hope you will enjoy this. [Completed]
1. Default Chapter

Author's notes:  
  
This is my version of a let's resolve everything fanfic,(also my first one) but I wanted to try in incorporate every plot device and cliché smoothly (Okay, semi-smoothly) into one story line. I tried to put every overused (and a few underused) ideals from other fanfics into it. Maybe one or two ideals of my own (maybe their mine - I'm not sure). Ah, well read and enjoy.  
  
Criticize, praise, damn all you want, but please know childish flames.  
  
All characters are not mine. All ideals are not mine. All plot devices are not mine. All spelling and grammar errors are mine, all mine! Ha! Ha! Ha!  
  
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Aftermath: A Story of Blended Clichés'   
  
  
  
"Ranma, is that you?"  
  
The long- haired redhead sitting at the cafe' table slowly raised her head until her blue eyes meet the brown counterpart of...  
  
"Nabiki."  
  
"Nabiki?" Nabiki said as she smoothly moved and sat at the table across from Ranma, "That's all you have to say after what? Five, six years?"  
  
"What did you expect?"  
  
"C'mon Saotome, is that anyway to treat someone who is practically family?"  
  
"Your not family, and I not a Saotome - not anymore, if you remember."  
  
Nabiki sighed.  
  
"Your father made a mistake and we've all regretted it ever since." Then adding with a longing look in her eyes, "Even your mother knows."  
  
Ranma eyes widen at that, then narrowed  
  
"Go on"  
  
"Well, she found out about the curses, she doesn't blame you. She wants to see you even if you are stuck."  
  
"What about the pledge?'  
  
"She said it didn't matter anymore, she said that piece of paper has caused more than enough pain and the curse doesn't matter."  
  
Ranma was silent, then exploded "Doesn't matter? Doesn't matter?!"   
  
Ranma caught her breath, then ranted on, "Doesn't matter that I lost that damned kettle fighting Herb? Doesn't matter that pops disowned me when I got back for refusing to marry your father to unite the stupid schools? Doesn't matter how much pain I was in because people I thought of as family and friends, people I thought that I could count on turned their backs to me? Doesn't matter that pops practically threw me into the street and no one lifted a finger to stop him or help me? Doesn't matter?! Well what does she know?!"  
  
Silence ruled. Taken aback by Ranma's verbal attack, Nabiki looked down on her hands that were resting flat, side by side on the table before her, long bangs obscuring her eyes.   
  
"She knows." Nabiki whispered.  
  
Nabiki sighed, her hands meet and fingers then laced together as she sighed again while looking up. Guilt ruled her expression. Ranma noticed this and before Nabiki could say anymore, Ranma spoke.  
  
"How much did you charge mom to tell her the truth."  
  
Nabiki winced at this. Visibly.  
  
"I...I guess I d...deserve that. After everything I done to you." pausing to breath, "I didn't charge you mother anything, in fact **I** was the one who **told** her everything and apologized for my part. You see, after about four or five months I couldn't take it anymore, everyone trying to go on like nothing had happened. It was like everyone pretending that everything was fine and dandy, living a lie, and I was part of it. Then some more things happened, I couldn't do it anymore."  
  
"You sound like you changed"  
  
"We all have. We all **had** too. For me it was my past 'business deals' that caught up to me. Then the law got involved. It shut a lot of doors that I thought it would open, after all, what honest business wants to hire someone who was a known as a high-school racketeer? It made even going to a university difficult."  
  
"What do you do now?" inquired Ranma.  
  
"I work for a children's charity now. I do the books and try to arrange funding for programs and projects that need it."  
  
Ranma audibly blinked-blink at this revelation.  
  
Nabiki noted this "I'm serious, the pay is not high, definitely not as high as I what I imagined I would be making back then, but I can make a living at it." she then adding in a lower voice "and it's honest work - helping people - nothing like I was doing."  
  
Ranma let it sink in for a moment, biting her lower lip she then asked  
  
"What about Akane?"  
  
Nabiki smiled at this, not a predatory smile but a genuine smile.  
  
"She is doing fine now, she's nothing like she was. Neither is daddy. For her and daddy it was finally getting help, the mental help they both needed and never got after mother died. Daddy doesn't cry anymore all the time like he use to and Akane anger is really under control. This came about after Akane put a few of the Hentai Hoard in the hospital in her senior year of high-school. After the investigation, her, daddy and some of the boys were put in a program to help with their - problems. Akane now lives in a small apartment not far from the dojo. She working as a teacher at Furikan High of all places teaching PE and Drama classes."  
  
"What about the her art?"  
  
"She gave it up - part of her anger management. She can control her temper real good except when she comes up against an opponent better than her. Then its like years of therapy out the window. She does yoga now to keep in shape and she teaches yoga classes at the dojo on the side. Daddy rents out the dojo to other masters so they can have a place to teach, some times him and even your father substitute teach when one the masters is sick or can't teach that night. But mostly father just manages and maintains the place."  
  
A pause.  
  
"She is still single you know."  
  
Ranma ignored this.  
  
"How about Kasumi?" Ranma asked  
  
"She doing great, she broke down soon after you...well, after your father threw you out. Dr. Tofu came and helped her and they've been married for about four years now. They have a baby on the way and they have a three year old daughter that is the prettiest thing you ever saw, they named 'Ranko".  
  
Ranma raised an eyebrow to this  
  
"I guess," Nabiki continued "it was their way of never forgetting you." Nabiki then leaned forward, "Ranma have you given up on getting a cure?"  
  
Ranma tilted her head, letting her loose red hair cascade down her left shoulder. Looking introspective, her month moved tightly side to side on her face, her blue eyes glazing over before sharpening she then straighten her frame.  
  
"Who said I never found a cure?"  
  
Pushing back against her seat, it was Nabiki's turn to blink-blink .  
  
"You found a cure? When? How? Why didn't you come back?"  
  
Ranma raised her hand to forestall anymore questions.  
  
"Yes I found a cure about, let's see, about 4 an a half, no five years ago... er, About a half a year after I was kicked out. After about six months after unlocking the curse I re-locked it."  
  
Nabiki blink-blink some more, then pressed forward. "But why didn't you come back? And why are you... did you... why are you still a girl?"  
  
Ranma sighed. Then turned her head and rested it against her hand. Watching people on the sidewalk bustle to and fro, looking at them without really looking at them. After a moment of this she turned her attention back to Nabiki.  
  
"What was there to come back to?"  
  
"There was Kasumi , father, your father..."  
  
"Ex-father" Ranma interjected.  
  
"...Akane."  
  
Ranma looked at Nabiki through half lidded eyes, then slowly shook her head.  
  
"You don't get it, do you?"  
  
"You haven't really explained anything yet."  
  
"True." She though for a moment before continuing "Let me tell you what would have happened if I've had came back and let's start with you. If I had come back the first thing you would've tried to do would be to scam me out of money or find some embarrassing way to make money off of me and generally make MY life miserable."  
  
"I told you, I don't do things like that anymore"  
  
"You say you don't now, but you did back then. Or did your change happen the night I was thrown out?"  
  
Nabiki sighed, had no answer. Ranma went on.  
  
"Your father and my EX-father would have been pushing Akane and I into a marriage neither of us wanted and was not prepared for and the time. For crying out loud, we were only 16 years old. The relationship between Akane and I was rocky at best, and it would've gone downhill from there until I was forced to leave for my own protection or Akane would have eventually killed me with that damned mallet of hers."  
  
Nabiki not finding any fault with the argument, remained silent.  
  
"Then there would Cologne and the rest of the Amazon gang trying to marry me or kill me, the Kuno idiots again trying to marry me or kill me, Taro, Ryoga..."  
  
"Kasumi dealt with Ryoga." Nabiki interrupted.  
  
"Really, ...how?"  
  
"Yes, when Ryoga came back soon after your... departure with the intention trying to Akane, Kasumi took him aside privately and told him that he was no longer welcome in our home."  
  
"And..."  
  
"She told him if he ever came back a certain pet pig was going to the vet to get fixed..."  
  
"Ouch. sigh, And I'm sure he blames me for all of it."  
  
"Don't know, don't care, no one's seen him since."  
  
"I haven't seen him either, maybe he finally got lost for good." Ranma remained quiet for a minute. "So what about the Amazon's? What have they been up to?"  
  
"Well they're still in Nermina. Just before you - were thrown out - Cologne and a large party of Amazon's set out for somewhere. Later my sources informed me that they went to where you defeated Herb and spent two months digging around and returned with something under heavy guard, I'm guessing it's that kettle that unlocks your curse. Anyway by the time they got back with it you were long gone."  
  
"No doubt to blackmail me into joining their tribe. I can see it now son-in-law accept your fate as Shampoo's husband and I will unlock your curse. Feh, too bad for her she's too late. But I am surprised to hear they are still there - I mean why wait for someone who may never come back?"  
  
"Bribing you into the tribe with a cure would be my guess, too and as for them waiting, well think of it this way: you have to remember, Cologne is over three hundred years old, time-wise this is really nothing to her."  
  
"Yeah, you got a point there.(never thought of it that way.) She'll probably figure I would come back someday, desperate, asking for her help and she would be ready for me in my moment of weakness. I would like to see her face when I turn her down cold. I guess Moose is still chasing after Shampoo?"  
  
"Don't think so. He went back to the Amazon village with the rest of the Amazon horde after they dug up the kettle. My guess he got tired of pinning for something he'd never get. Anyway haven't heard anything from or about him since. Not even from Shampoo."  
  
"The Kuno's?"  
  
"That's a weird story. They both spent time in a mental institute and when they both got out they locked themselves away in their mansion. Didn't pay to much attention at the time because I was tied up with legal problems of my own at the time. Anyway, no one outside of Sazuke has seen them in the last two years. I hear rumors every now and then about them searching for their 'lost loves' but nothing concrete. So... why ARE you still a girl?"  
  
"Why I am still a girl? Well it's true I could unlock my curse and go back to being half girl, half boy....but after being a girl for awhile it didn't matter to me anymore. Didn't matter to the people I was with, my friends... it's just....  
  
Ranma leaned forward locking eyes with Nabiki  
  
"... I would rather be a girl all the time, then half of something all the time."  
  
"I...see."  
  
Well, there was that and a whole lot of other stuff that happened to make me come to that decision but I decided I like who and what I am. I have no reason to change.  
  
"Really?"  
  
Yep, do you understand?  
  
"A little...I'm not sure to be honest, but I... I mean I never been in your shoes so I can't really say. I mean, everything you said makes sense. About what you said about what would've happened if you came home is true for the most part - I can't argue any of the points you made. It's just... I don't know, it all seems so unreal, so unlike the way I remember you. You know, RanmaI'm a guy, dammit she paused, reflecting "About your mother..."  
  
"What about her?"  
  
"She desperately wants to see you, she has missed you so much. It is heartbreaking to watch her cry over you."  
  
"Cry? Over me? Why should she cry over me? She knows nothing about me."  
  
"You are her child and she misses you and wants to see you. Is that so strange?"  
  
Ranma looked down into her lap and growled out, "No stranger than marrying a dishonorable, lying, thieving man and expecting him to raise a child to be a 'men among men' under threat of death. No stranger than accepting a child's playful finger-painting as a contract... and no stranger than pretending to be honorable herself."  
  
Nabiki pulled back from the sheer venom in Ranma's voice.   
  
"A mother is supposed to love their children, Ranma shot, not be a constant threat to their lives. I guess me thinking that way would make me strange to her."  
  
"We talked, her and I," Nabiki quickly said, "she said she was young and foolish at the time and had no ideal that Genma would be so ...dishonorable. Ranma, she was only 16 when she got married and barely 18 when she had you. She didn't realize the pain or ...or she didn't realize how you couldn't understand what was going on, all because she trusted your father so completely."  
  
Ranma sat there, still looking at her lap.  
  
"She older now, she wants to see you, the curse doesn't matter to her. Ranma she's in pain, you are all she thinks about. Can't you just forgive her and just visit her. It would mean so much to her."  
  
"You've changed."  
  
"I told you, we all changed. Even you."  
  
Silence ruled again.   
  
"Yeah...I guess I have changed too." Ranma finally said "I mean I'm definitely not the same person I was six years ago. Jeez, I'm not even the same sex I was six years ago."  
  
"So what have you been doing Ranma?"  
  
Ranma looked at Nabiki, really began looked at her closely. She realize she was no longer looking at the 'ice queen' that Nabiki became and was famous for back in high-school. This was like a different person - no not different - just changed, changed for the better.  
  
"I've...well after that night I wandered around Tokyo thinking about what to do, you know... where to search for a cure. I ended up here in Jubann and made some friends, real friends. Friends that know all about me and all about my past and accepted me anyway."  
  
"This led to your cure?"  
  
"Indirectly, you know some of the weird things that happen here?"  
  
Nabiki nodded, Ranma continued.  
  
"Well I had a run in with some of them and they not only cured the lock the ladle had on me, but gave me a somewhat limited control over the curse."  
  
"Limited? How?"  
  
"Well I can lock or unlock myself in my cursed, or as I like to think of it my girl form, at will. If I wanted to I could change back into a guy until I got hit with cold water again, but I can't lock myself into my birth form, magic doesn't seem to want to work that way. So I took what I could get."  
  
"Ah... When was the last time you were a guy?"  
  
"Let see... about, ohh, about two, maybe two and a half years now. But I did it only for alittle while, about five minutes - before that it was probably another two and half years."  
  
"....five years?" Nabiki squeaked out.  
  
"Hey, it was an easy call. It didn't matter to me or my new friends what I was, but like I said, I got tired of being half of something all of the time, so I lock myself in my girl form. Gotta new life now, a life that **I** built NOT one where someone else decided and tried to impose on me."  
  
"Ah.. Do you, I mean have you ... ah... dated?"  
  
"Several times when I was attending Tokyo University, now... well, I would rather not say anymore.  
  
This was too much for Nabiki, Ranma dating, Ranma attended, no graduated from Tokyo University?! She collapse against the back of the chair, just staring at Ranma.  
  
"What?" Ranma asked defensively.  
  
"Just surprised, that's all." Nabiki squeaked.  
  
"Well hey, I dated guys and girls.."  
  
"As a girl?!"  
  
"... of course, what do you think I am- a pervert?"  
  
Nabiki's mind boggled. This was not what she expected. Needless to say, she forgot all about the shopping she needed to do.  
  
After a while she swallowed hard, then said "Are you going to visit your mother?"  
  
Silence once again found them. Ranma twitched, turning thoughts over in her mind. A distant look crossed her face before refocusing on Nabiki.  
  
"Tell you what" Ranma ventured, "get everyone together at the Dojo tomorrow say around two. I'll deal with everyone at the same time. Well almost everyone, I definitely don't want to deal with the Kuno's. I just want to deal with ... my old family and friends."  
  
Nabiki sobered up with that, but before she could reply to Ranma's statement, a couple came up to the table.  
  
"Hello Ranma, who is your friend?"  
  
"Oh, an old aquatince of mine Usagi." Ranma answered casually. " Nabiki please meet my friends Usagi and her fiancé Mamoru."   
  
"H.. hello."  
  
Usagi's eyes narrowed as she spoke softly but firmly, "Nabiki, not the same Nabiki that caused Ranma so much trouble in the past."  
  
Nabiki winced.  
  
"That's in the past, she's changed" Ranma said eyeing Nabiki with one raised eyebrow, "haven't we all?"  
  
Mamoru nodded as he pulled Usagi close, Usagi kept giving Nabiki the eye. Before anything more could happen, Ranma rose from her chair. "Time to go get going. I don't want to be late. Nabiki don'tell anyone much about what I've said, I want to be the one to tell'em."  
  
Nabiki nodded dumbly at this, as she watched the three stroll away from her down toward a bus stop. Standing rather shakily, she then hurried home, thinking of the phone calls she would have to make. Thinking about what would tomorrow bring.  
  
***********  
  
The next day.  
  
In Juuban, Ranma moved smoothly through the kata in the barren living room of the studio apartment that she shared. Looking more like a dance than anything related to martial arts, she gently, soundlessly and gracefully spin, kicked and jabbed at invisible opponents until she halted artfully in the center of the room facing a large window. She then bowed to the sunbeam and straighten. Eyes closed, breathing evenly with the morning sun caressing her face and arms Ranma found her center and then stretched in the bathing sunlight.   
  
Turning she trotted down the short hallway, stopping just to take a look at the clock, Ranma then gathered up her cellphone and placing it in her purse as she exited the apartment.  
  
Once outside the apartment building she stopped exhaled through pursed lips and muttered softly, "Well, today I face my past."   
  
*******  
  
At the Tendo dojo, Nabiki observed the group of familiar faces from Ranma's past as they gathered in the Tendos living room.   
  
First there was her father sitting across from Mr. Saotome, both studying the Go board in front of them. Mr. Tendo's face was contemplative but Genma's face held a certain amount of anticipation as his eye's kept shifting from the game toward the front door. The way his eye's darted, it seemed to Nabiki of the look a criminal gets, when considering the best way to approach a robbery. Anyone could probably guess what was on his mind. The fat idiot hadn't changed his ways in all the time Nabiki had known him.  
  
Nokoda, Ranma's mother, sat beside Kasumi playing with Kasumi's and Tofu's three year old daughter Ranko. Nokoda occupied herself with the over-energetic three year old mainly to keep herself form bouncing off the walls. She was going to see her child for the first time in 16 years and could hardly contain herself and Ranko was a much needed distraction. Kasumi sat and watched both with a mother's eye while absently rubbing her belly, which was just starting to swell with the signs of pregnancy.   
  
Nabiki, who was sitting opposite Nokoda and her niece, while watching everyone else, had kept to her word and not divulged too many details of meeting Ranma - not that she really knew any of them anyway. With that thought her eye's drifted over to Akane, who was pacing back and forth in the living room wringing her hands. Nabiki hoped that Akane would come out all right, she was worried about her younger sister. She had not said much since finding out that Ranma was coming.  
  
In the corner of the room sat the two Amazon's. Quietly sitting side-by-side with unreadable expressions donning their faces. Cologne and Shampoo sat apart from everyone and activity took no part in any of the conversations that sparked on and off among the group, but were polite when any questions were directed at them.  
  
Ukyou couldn't make it, being busy with her new husband of seven month's. Nabiki didn't know the whole story, but Ukyou seemed happy. Life seemed to really turn around for the Okonomiyi chief since he decided to get on with her life, she did however, send her regards.  
  
Further respecting Ranma's wishes she made sure the Kuno's would be kept firmly in the dark.  
  
As the hour of two neared the tension in the room seem notch up. Everyone even the stoic Amazon's seem to be on pins and needles. Throughout this no one spoke, even Ranko, seeming to sense something big was happening and settled down and sat, wedged between her mother and Nokoda.  
  
The seconds ticked by slowly as the minute hand of the clock on the wall moved closer to two. When the minute hand reach five til there was a sharp rap at the door...  
  
  
*****  
  
Ranma walked up to the house she hadn't seen in six years. Using every technique she learned to keep herself calm and focused, she approached the door. She couldn't believe how nervous she was; fighting yomas and daemons side by side with the scouts, no problem. Risking life and limb in the heat of battle, no problem. The other, more things that happened to her in the last five years or so, no problem. Meeting her family for the first time in six years, big problem. Big, hairy problem.  
  
Looking around at the entrance, it looked the same as the first time she came here. It was as if nothing changed much in the intervening years, as if time stood still. Steeling herself, she reached out with her hand and surprised herself with how loud she'd rapped.  
  
******  
  
Ranma was quickly enveloped in a glomp worthy of any Amazon as Nokoda hugged and sobbed and whimpered I'm sorry ...I'm so sorry....over and over again. Ranma didn't even remember entering the house - one second she was at the door, the next in the entry way being hugged tightly.  
  
Nabiki taking pity on the spectacle before her came up beside both hugging women and steered them toward the stairs. Giving a look to the other people that were just beginning to crowd around the two women that brook no argument that one one was not to get in their way.  
  
Climbing the stairs Nabiki led Ranma and Nokoda, who still clinging and crying in Ranma's arms, upstairs into her old room. Ranma then gently guided Nokoda over to the bed as they sat as one. Holding her openly sobbing mother closely, she didn't notice that Nabiki had left the two alone until she heard the sound of a click as the door closed.  
  
"mom?" she said softly  
  
Nokoda's grip on Ranma tightened and the sound of her sobs intensified. Ranma held her mother and rocked her gently.  
  
"mom?"  
  
Nokoda finally calmed enough to choke out "I'm sorry... so sorry..I shouldn't have never let him... sorry....so sorry...."  
  
Another round to sobbing and breath stealing hugging ensued.  
  
"Mom, I have somethings to tell you before I tell anyone else."  
  
Nokoda untangled herself form her off spring, just enough to look into Ranma's eye's with teared filled one's.  
  
"Y.. yes?" she finally sputtered out weakly.  
  
"Well, six years ago after I was...."  
  
*********  
  
  
Everyone was looking at Nabiki that just came down stairway.   
  
"What happened?" someone ventured (not quite sure who)  
  
"They just need some time alone."  
  
Genma at that point hurrumpht and announced,  
  
"Time? Time? He's been gone for over six years that ungrateful boy. He'd all the time in the world to do what's right. Why I should go up there right now and beat some sense into ... and showing up dressed as a weak, stupid girl! He is a disgrace to the family name. Oh, why have I been cursed with such a weak and dishor-"  
  
Slap  
  
Kasumi suddenly was there,bringing her hand down from where it stopped, glaring daggers at a stunned Genma. The room too, was shocked into silence as Kasumi went toe-to-toe with Genma.  
  
"Why should he be a disgrace to you?! A very livid Kasumi said, You, the only family he knew, had abandoned and disowned him?! " Kasumi narrowed her eye's and raved on, "You were the cause of all of poor Ranma's problems, leaving him to deal with every dishonorable thing you did. And when he truly did need your help, truly needed friends, you turned your back to him like a coward... we all did. I only hope that he will forgive me for being so weak, for not doing anything to help him in his moment of need. For not doing the right thing."  
  
Looking down, she paused to catch her breath. She back away from Genma and once more looked at him in the eyes. Continuing, this time more in control of her emotions.  
  
All this time you called Ranma weak and dishonorable, but it was you that was and still are weak and dishonorable. Weak enough that you tried to pawned all your problems, all your dishonor off on your son. Your so dishonorable, that while raising you son, you let your base wants rule every decision you made. It's truly a miracle that he turned out as fine as he did. In the long run, you disowning Ranma was maybe the best thing that could have happened to him. It got him away from you.  
  
Genma stood, unmoving. He sighed and then gave a look to Kasumi as if she was the one who really didn't understand anything. Shaking his head, he then turned an sat down at his traditional spot by the Go board. He did not notice Mr. Tendo smiling at his eldest daughter with pride. The rest of the room however. looked on at Genma with thinly veiled disgust, after all anyone who could get Kasumi _that_ angry was someone you didn't want to even _seen_ with.  
  
[Some people never change.] Nabiki thought, unknowingly echoing the thoughts of many others in the room.  
  
It was at this point that a nervous Ranma and a smiling Nokoda reentered the room. It was the first time that everyone was able to get a good look at Ranma since she arrived. Ranma was dressed in what would be by anyone's terms a very stylish pale green blouse and skirt combo, with the bottom of the skirt falling just above the knee. The blouse and skirt was tailored to fit the curves of her body and accentuated her very feminine frame, a matching purse hung at her side. Her hair was wore loose and fell in waves down her back except for two long bangs that framed her face. Hooped earrings peeked from behind her scarlet tresses, light make-up adored her face - understated as is was the effect was stunning.   
  
Oh my. (guess who)  
  
Hello Kasumi.  
  
With that, Ranma for the second time that afternoon was engulfed in a glomp.   
  
Oh Ranma! I'm so sorry for not helping you all those years ago. Can you ever forgive me? Kasumi cried.  
  
Holding Kasumi, Ranma stroked her hair and whispered   
  
Of course I forgive you. You of all people made me feel welcomed here. Holding her at arms length and looking into her eyes. I forgave you most of all, you were like a older sister to me. And I would like to think of you like that still.  
  
Kasumi gave one of her patented smiles, giggling said I would be honored to have you as my brother - or sister, Ranma.  
  
Happosai picked this moment to make his entrance, bounding through the open sogi doors into the room. He energetically presented himself before Ranma.  
  
Ranma! How are you doing my girl?! Long time no see! How is my heir doing?  
  
With a respectful bow Ranma answered  
  
Doing well Master Happosai, and yourself?  
  
Returning the bow, just as deeply  
  
Feeling fine and dandy, Master Ranma or should I say - Grand master Ranma - it is good to know all my secrets and techniques are in safe and capable hands. You have pasted everything I could thrown your way, say are you still keeping in shape?  
  
Oh you bet I do, how is your retirement treating you?  
  
Very well, very well indeed. I was afraid for the longest time that I would not be able to retire or my art would die with me. With you the future of Anything Goes is secure, and I can stop playing games with these stupid panty raids and have some real fun.  
  
Ah... what kind of fun? Ranma asked as she big sweated.  
  
Well, my girl, I've taken up hacking.  
  
  
  
Yes...you know computer hacking. It offers an interesting mental exercise and occupies my time, that and traveling. Why, I plan to travel to someplace in the United States called Dallas, Texas, I hear there is going to be a underground hacker convention there. If I can just narrow down where...  
  
During this exchanged everyone stood frozen by the relavations. Ranma the Grand Master of Anything Goes? Happosai retired? Happosai not feeling Ranma up? Hacking? What in the hell was going on here?  
  
In the corner someone else was taking it all in with aged eyes. Cologne, elder of the Amazon's, scanned Ranma's chi carefully - it seemed more powerful than she'd remember, but not too much more. Nothing she herself couldn't handle if it came to that, after all Ranma was a mere pup compared to her. There was something else there that she could not, in her three hundred years, identify, she filed it away to question about Ranma it later. After all, there would be plenty of time for questions once they returned to village with him as Shampoo's lawful husband. She was very sure that Ranma would return with them, after all they had something that Ranma wanted. Desperately wanted. Yes all her years of planning and waiting would come to fruition today, she chuckle quietly to herself. Shampoo would not only get her husband today, but also the secrets of Anything Goes will be in the hands of the Amazon's. Ranma a Grand Master! According to Happosai THE Grand Master! This would surly raise the status of herself and Shampoo among the villagers. Not only that, the bloodlines of the tribe and the fighting art of the tribe would be strengthened in one fell swoop. What a coup!  
  
Silently she signaled to Shampoo. But before Shampoo could rise to do anything, Genma shot from across the room to stand in front and towered imperially over Ranma, with his arms crossed in front, he demanded,  
  
Where have you been? Don't you know that there is family honor to uphold? How could you have run away from your responsilblites? Did I not teach you anything? And why are dress like that, like some weak girl? Well, what about it, boy? C'mon speak up boy.  
  
Ranma eyed Genma as if she were eyeing a cockroach that had just crawled out from under a rock. Behind Genma, Ranma noted that Soun Tendo was rolling his eyes and shaking his head at his old friends foolishness.  
  
What family honor? The Saotome name means nothing to me. You should know, you're the one who disowned me.  
  
Forget that now, that doesn't matter now anyway, boy. Your duty is to join the schools, once we find a cure for your disgraceful condition.  
  
What schools?  
  
What schools?! Boy, have you forgotten everything? Of course, beginning stuck as a weak, stupid girl for six years may have affected your mind. The Saotome and Tendo schools of Anything Goes what else would I be taking about? Foolish boy!  
  
Ranma sighed, looking at her ex-father she realized that he was a bigger idiot than she'd remembered.  
  
Oh I remember you old fool. I also know that there are no schools to join, not that matters to me. After all I am not a Saotome and haven't been one for the last six years thanks to you; and definitely not in the over the past year or so. AND as Grand Master of the Founding School of Anything Goes, YOU are the one that has to answer to ME. I'm I right Master Happosai?  
  
Quite right Master Ranma, Happosai piped in, Genma is a complete failure in the art of Anything Goes - he has never really mastered anything I taught him and he has failed every test - martial and morally - I gave him.  
  
Now see here, bo..  
  
Sit down Ranma said pouring just alittle bit of chi into her voice, directing it at Genma.  
  
Genma reaction was immediate, before he could think about it, he found himself sitting on the floor before a stern Ranma, a giggling Nokoda and a amused Happosai; Kasumi at this point had already moved back to the table to tend to her daughter. Genma doubled-blinked and wondered how in the hell he got down there on the floor like that.  
  
Ranma said, still putting a bit of chi into her voice No more out of you, understand?  
  
Genma nodded, feeling very small and powerless all of a sudden. He also the felt of disagreeing right now would not to a good ideal. Not a good for his health either.  
  
Ranma smiled, you maybe trainable after all.  
  
A lull fell over the scene, a lull that Shampoo capitalized on.  
  
Husband! It is past time for us to return to our village. You will come now with no arguments or you will be punished for being a disobedient male.   
  
What impressed Ranma most was that she said this in prefect Japanese.  
  
Oh please! Like there is anything you and the ghoul could do to me. beginning to get annoyed. The Amazons were always a thorn in her side, between tricks, pressure points and drugs, they could not be trusted. Her tolerance over the years had eroded from the bitter memories of the mistreatment by their hands.  
  
Oh yes there is, son-in-law. Cologne chuckled, We can restore you to true self, make you male again. Only of course only **after** you return to our village as Shampoo's rightful husband.  
  
So, you have the kettle?  
  
Cologne grinned, it was not a pretty sight.  
  
Yes, son-in-law, we possess the kettle. The kettle that will unlock your curse and give you to your male body once again.  
  
With her arms crossed in front under her breasts Ranma seem to ponder this. She made a great show as various thoughtful expressions crossed her face. Nabiki idly wonder where Ranma learned how to be such a great actor. If it wasn't for the talk they shared yesterday, she would have been completely fooled. Genma, who was still sitting on the floor, was wondering why in the hell Ranma was not taking the offer; after all he could skip out after being cured and come back and join the schools. Only his fear kept him from opening his mouth. Finally after a great deal of thought (or so it look to be to the other people in the room) Ranma turn to the Amazon pair.  
  
  
  
Cologne eyes widen at this. This was not what she was expecting. She didn't of course, really expect total expectancy of the deal what she was offering. She had expected bargaining, pleading, threats and even the possibility of a physical attack crossed her mind. Anything, but not a flat out refusal. This was impossible! At last she had the upper hand! She and she alone possessed the only way Ranma could return to his true self. His male pride and ego would and should have made consider the offer. Unless...  
  
So, you have accepted your curse.  
  
You can say it's something like that.  
  
Does not matter with a wave of her hand - you are Shampoo's husband by law and you will be returning with us to the village. Nothing you can say or do can change that.  
  
I'm sure I can think of something.  
  
Oh? I would be most interested in seeing what. Come along young fool, I've wasted more than enough time on you as it is. It is time for us to go.  
  
How's this, Ranma said while tilting her head you go home without me and I promise not to cripple you.  
  
I see the years spent trapped in your curse form haven't diminished your arrogance. I was prepared for this however, and I will teach you to respect those who are older and wiser than you.  
  
Ranma sighed then turn a raised eyebrow to the diminutive matriarch  
  
Cologne, I am much older than you in some ways, far older than my physical self. I think it will be you that learns respect today.  
  
With that and without hesitation, Cologne blurred into motion becoming a whirlwind of arms, legs and staff. Ranma for her part seemed to just stand there, unmoving to the human eye except for her cloths which looked as if they were caught in a windstorm. In actuality Ranma was dodging Cologne so fast and effortlessly that she appeared to be standing still, only her clothes betrayed the movement of the evasiveness. This was really impressive considering her mother ,Genma and Happosai who were still in close proximity to her didn't even feel a breeze. Then without warning and with a sharp crack, Cologne found herself suddenly face planted into the side of the wall with pieces of her shattered staff laying at her feet.  
  
Getting slow in your old age, ghoul?  
  
Cologne spun, once again facing Ranma, rage clearly adorning her face. Inside she was confused, Ranma was surprising her - there was no way he could have gotten this good in such a short period of time. If so, then someone of his talent must be brought into the tribe - there was no other choice, but first his must be subdued.  
  
I see I underestimated you. I will not hold back this time.  
  
Then you won't mind if I don't either. motioning for the people around her to give her more room, Bring it on, old ghoul.  
  
Before Cologne launched herself at Ranma she signaled Shampoo to join the fray, both jumping Ranma at the same time from different directions. Cologne moved much quicker than before, becoming an fuzzy after image while Shampoo moved at slower, but still blurring in impressive speed, both trying to take Ranma down before she could react to the twin attacks. No one was more surprised than the Amazons when they soon found themselves outside, impacted against the ground beside the koi pond. Cologne, spitting out some dirt was the first on her feet, checking over to Shampoo who was just beginning to push herself up into a sitting position with one hand while holding her bleeding nose with the fingers of the other hand.  
  
Thru out the entire conflict Ranma stood, still in the same place as she started with a bored look on her face.  
  
Old ghoul, you are far to young to beat me and even if you could, I would rather die than be forced to join a tribe of cowardly, dishonorable and pathetic people such as you.  
  
Cologne stood, her battle aura exploding from her small body swirling around her. Teeth clenched tightly together she grounded out,  
  
Three thousand years of Amazon history...  
  
ARE NOTHING! Ranma roared with chi pouring into her voice, cutting Cologne off by stunning her into silence. Ranma started gliding toward the Amazon duo with her eyes that glowing with power,   
  
Your three thousand years are nothing, your three hundred years are nothing, your history , your tribe, your laws, your people are nothing! The Amazons were nothing, are nothing and will always be nothing! Your so cowardly I bet you haven't told Shampoo the secret of why the Amazons lasted as long as they have.  
  
We are great women warriors, feared and respected by everyone. Shampoo nasaled out, still nursing her nose, the blood loss having slowed by this point.  
  
No you are not. That maybe what they told you in your village school, but the truth is much more simpler.  
  
Don't listen to him Shampoo, he is an outsider and knows nothing of our past or our ways. Cologne said sternly. On the inside Cologne was seething, fighting to keep a cool head. How in the hell did someone as young as Ranma get so good in only six years? She had to find out, the future of the tribe may depend on it!  
  
Afraid of letting Shampoo know the truth, old ghoul? As far as your past is concerned, let's just say - I had a close friend show me your past - you could say I know more about the Chinese Amazons than even your own historians. Redirecting her attention to Shampoo The only reason that the Amazons lasted as long as they have is because you come from a small, out-of-way corner of the world that no one else gives a damn about because there is nothing there TO give a damn about.  
  
Behind her hand, Shampoos eye widen. You lie.  
  
Shampoo you have lived here in Japan for over six years, you have watched the news of the world, you have met other people from other places, you've seen how things how thing are done here. Has anyone, outside of the people in this room, ever even heard of the Chinese Amazons much less know anything about them?  
  
Shampoo ,starring with still wide eyes, shook her head. Ranma went on,  
  
If the Chinese Amazons are so feared and respected, how come no one knows anything about them? If Chinese Amazon Laws take precedence over everyone else's, why didn't Cologne go to the Japanese government and demand my extradition to China? The truth is the people who do know about you don't respect you, they look down on you as barbarians, fools and cowards who are too stuck in the past, afraid to face the present world. The truth is your laws mean nothing outside the confines of your pathetic little village.  
  
With her battle aura blazing,Cologne unexpectedly, or so she thought, rushed Ranma again, this time Ranma danced around each of her blows taunting her.  
  
Duck, turn, spin Gezz, I can't believe I use to think you were good. dodge, parry I haven't seen fighting this bad since the last youma I killed. sidestep, jump.  
  
At this pronouncement Cologne broke off, sizing Ranma up. You have slayed youma? Ranma nodded from her guarded position. Cologne smiled, Makes you all the more valuable son-in-law.  
  
At this point, Ranma's frustration level was finally peaked. Would this idiot ever get a clue? This was worse than she'd remember Kuno ever being. Well, almost. Okay, maybe not quite. Even though it looked that even Shampoo was getting a clue as she stayed out of the last confrontation. (Or maybe getting a good sock in the nose made her rethink her abilities.) Deciding to hell with it Ranma went on the offensive and leapt toward Cologne. At the apex of her leap, she shimmered as bands of energy surrounded her body and then she came down in a unseen flight. Cologne for her part tried, really tried to dodge but she was no where near fast enough.  
  
Next thing Cologne knew, she was flat on her back, sore as hell and with the business end of a sword pointed directly at her neck. On the other end of the sword was Ranma, a much changed Ranma. The pale green dress and blouse combo that she was wearing had been replaced by a short teal fuku trimmed in white and a white sailor body suit trimmed in teal. The bow on her chest was red as was the larger one on small of her back with trailing ribbons. A golden teirra ringed her forehead with a blazing red stone set in the middle. Her long red hair was was now tied back with a teal bow into a pony tail that brushed against the bow on her lower back. Ranma's feet were adored with black flat slippers, her legs covered in thigh-high white stockings and on her arms she worn black bracers decorated in unusual pattern. Her blue eyes were as cold as death itself.  
  
Do you yield old one or do I have to end this permanently?  
  
Cologne considered her options. The power she was reading that was coming off Ranma was unreal, larger than anything she had seen before. Never in her three hundred years has anything else come close. Even the demigod, Saffon of Phoenix mountain's power was nothing compared to what was pinning her down now. It was at this point Cologne began to realized she was very outclassed, seriously. She did the only thing she could do.  
  
I yeild...Ranma.Cologne mumbled, swallowing her pride.  
  
Ranma withdrew the sword and stored it away. Good, it seems your just like Genma - trainable.  
  
Oh my god! Ranma! YOU'RE Sailor Sun!   
  
Looking over to who had spoken Ranma locked eyes with-  
  
  
  
I knew your life was chaotic, but this... Akane said while waving to what Ranma was wearing. ... this is beyond anything I could imagine. [probably likes the short skirts - no! don't go there girl - you'll just get worked up for no reason , - hmmmm -nice legs, cute butt]  
  
Well, it just sort of happened. Ranma shrugged heh, you wouldn't believe how it all came about. She stepped away from Cologne who still laid on the ground and detransformed back into what she was wearing. Not once letting her guard drop while doing so. So much has happened - but you can say I found myself at last.  
  
You think your really... no, you really a girl now, aren't you? she softly ask.  
  
Yeah, Akane - yeah. Mind, body and soul.  
  
  
  
All heads turned to a young man, standing on the property wall, holding a sword of light dressed in some weird type of armor.  
  
Are you all right?! I felt you transform. the newcomer asked, while eyes sweeping the crowd.  
  
Yes, yes I'm all right. Just had to persuade someone - looking at the still prone Cologne - who was too stubborn for her own good to let me alone.  
  
the man blinked then detransformed into jeans and a nice gray polo shirt as he hoped off the wall. The sword winking out of existence as he did so.  
  
Excuse me young man, but are you Tenchi? Nokoda inquired.  
  
blink Huh, yes madam. as he reached up and nervously scratched the back of his neck.  
  
Oh! Son-in-law! Please come in! We have so much to talk about! gushed Nokoda.  
  
Everyone face faulted with the exception of six people, Ranma stood blushing demurely while examing the ground around her feet, a happy Nokoda was busy escorting a bewildered Tenchi into the living room all awhile asking embarrassing questions and Kasumi covered her mouth let out another patented Oh my!.   
  
Three year old Ranko, for those who are interested, was curled up by the table snoring lightly, long getting bored with what was happening. (Grown ups - never do **anything** interesting). Happosai, holding his unlit pipe, was too busy scanning over a thick, oversize magazine titled Underground Hackers Quarterlyat the table to pay any attention to what was going on. (He was going to have some **fun** tonight!)   
  
Cologne still face faulted, but since she was still on the ground, she didn't have far to go. (It still hurt.)  
  
By the time everyone recovered, Ranma, Tenchi, Nokoda and Kasumi were engaged in lighthearted conversation.  
  
So, Tenchi tell me, how did you meet my daughter? Nokoda asked as she raised a cup of tea to her lips.  
  
Well, heh, heh .. Ah we meet at Tokyo University. During a kendo match.  
  
Raising her eyebrow, Oh, you both were spectators?  
  
No, we were contestants. Ranma interjected We were the two finalist in the tournament.  
  
Oh really? How wonderful! Who won? Kasumi said, seeing it as a romantic way for someone like Ranma to meet her spouse.  
  
Well... hee, hee, hee, it's like this... um... Ranma, blushing tried to answer. [Damn! why am I blushing so damn much?! I'ts embarrassing!] She blushed more over that.  
  
Tenchi, on the other hand, It was called a draw after seven hours.  
  
Seven hours?! Nokoda and Kasumi said as one.  
  
Ranma blushed [Damn! I wish I would stop that!], Seven hours, five walls, two grand stands, and one set of fire doors - yeah - hee, hee, hee,... um... the arena was closed for repairs for a month after that. They didn't allow us to compete after that. **That** is what had irked her the most at the time, not so much as the fight ending in a draw.  
  
Kasumi asked happily how long have you and Tenchi been married?  
  
Over a year. We decided to get married near the beginning of our senior year. We've been together almost two years now.  
  
Kasumi ventured softly how long have you been pregnant?  
  
Ranma's jaw went slack. Ho... How did ja' know?  
  
Just a guess, seeing how you were extra careful to protect your lower abdomen while fighting Cologne, I thought that maybe you had a good reason for doing so.  
  
Ranma double-blinked. She had been moving in her strikes of lighting technique. No one should have been able to see her move much less see her defensive parries. Ranma was stunned by Kasumi's power of observation.  
  
About six weeks, Ranma finally said still stunned, how did you see... I mean... how?  
  
Oh, your so silly Ranma, I didn't really see you move. I just notice your stance between engaging and disengaging in combat. It was easy to read how you protecting one part of you body more carefully than any of other the parts. Kasumi said all this as if were the most ordinary and obvious thing in the world.  
  
Ranma shook her head clear, the possibility that Kasumi being a Negaverse Warrior filter into and then was forcibly ejected from her head. This was Kasumi for god's sake! After a moment of contemplating.  
  
"Tenchi and I had alot in common," Ranma finally spoke, breaking the silence while sipping her tea, "we were both being pursued by women who wanted us, but we weren't sure about are feelings for them."  
  
"We both felt we were being treated as object or a possession, not as beings with our own thoughts and feelings." Tenchi pick up on.  
  
"So how did you... I mean you obviously know about Ranma being, I mean used to be a guy, how did that work out?" Nabiki asked finally getting herself together enough to join the conversation.  
  
"Ranma showed me the first time I asked her out for a date. After that we decided to be friends, then over time... I don't know it just happened."  
  
"It didn't hurt that I was a reincarnated female warrior from Silver Millennium." Ranma said, "After all, having 1500 years of memories as a woman tends to change you outlook on the life you have now, but that was a slow process. It took years to collate my past life's memories into the life I have now."  
  
"About that, how did that come about? You were born a guy." Nabiki said while leaning on the table.   
  
"Well, hee, hee - it's like this. In a pervious life I was, THE most powerful of the senshi. Sailor Saturn was feared because her power could shatter a world, I was feared because my power could take out a quadrate of the galaxy."  
  
Everyone, except Tenchi, look at her as if she'd had grown a second head.  
  
"Don't get excited, I have perfect control over my powers. You don't spend 1500 years training to be the ultimate weapon without nothing to show for it. Anyway, back in the Silver Millennium, when Queen Serenity banished the Dark Moon Kingdom to the Negaverse, I was the one who had to sealed the juncture between our universe and the Negaverse."  
  
"Oh, that's nice, how did you do that?" Kasumi, while pouring another cup of tea.  
  
"I used my final attack. Final not because it's my most powerful attack, but because I die doing it. I turned the energy stored within me into mass, basically turning myself into a black hole while inside the wormhole between the universes, collapsing the juncture in on itself and myself - sealing it."  
  
"You - died?" Kasumi said with a hint of an "oh, my" under it. Leaning against into her husband for support.  
  
"Yes - can't say I remember much about my moment of death through. Oh, by the way speaking of death Genma, I don't blame you for getting me cursed anymore."  
  
"Y-you don't?" he sweatily asked [Thank god! Now I don't have to worry about him, er her trying to kill me.]  
  
"Yeah, turned out that was Sailor Pluto's doing. She made sure you found the pamphlet to Josunkeyo, made sure I fell into the right spring and made sure that any permanent cures would not work."  
  
"But why on earth would she do that?" Nokoda inquired.  
  
"Well, you see I should have lived out my life as a guy, die normally then be reborn in a female body in my next life. Because I was needed much sooner that anticipated something had to be done now. Being born a boy was no good because I couldn't interface with my powers or my memories. She had to find a way to change me into a girl in this life and slowly awaken my past lives memories without me going completely insane." [Not that I almost did once or twice or more.]  
  
"Now you're settling down with nice normal boy and starting a family. Oh! How wonderful!" Kasumi was radiating happiness into the room.  
  
"He's ...ah, not quite normal."  
  
"Oh, your have a curse too?" Akane joined in, dazed by the events.  
  
"No, nothing like that," Tenchi answered while scratching the back of his neck, " you see, I'm kinda of a prince."  
  
"You - are?" Nabiki, with upturned eyebrow.  
  
"Yes, he is a prince, in fact the crown prince of Jurai." Ranma helped  
  
"I did pretty good in geography, I never heard of that country before." Akane said quizzical.  
  
"You won't find it on any map unless it's a star map." Tenchi pointed out. "the Jurai Empire controls most of the galaxy, Earth is just on the outer fringes of its extra territorial control."  
  
Eye widen at that. Finally Nabiki broke the silence that over took them all.  
  
"Ranma, let me get this all straight," she said " first your a reincarnated princess, a senshi no less, the most powerful one ever created..."  
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
"...then you get your memories back from your past life and are now a girl in mind as well as in body..."  
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
"...then you fight side-by-side the other senshi, destroying yomas and daemons basically saving the world..."  
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
...then somehow you get trained by Happosai in the secrets of Anything goes, and become the Grand master of Anything Goes...  
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
"...during all this you graduated high school, well enough that you attended and graduate from Tokyo University. You met Tenchi there, who is the crown prince of some intergalactic empire, married him and is now carrying his child."  
  
Ranma and Tenchi nodded.  
  
Nabiki looked down on her empty tea cup, lost in thought for a moment.  
  
"Sis, you have any Sake', I think I need something stronger."  
  
There was a small chorus of "same here's" from around the table.  
  
"So, what are you going to do now?" Akane asked pensively.  
  
Ranma's, looking at her ex-fiance, her eyes softened.   
  
"Well in about three months Tenchi and I are leaving for Jurai. The royal court has ask that Tenchi's and my child be born on Jurai. So we will be gone for at least a year."  
  
"Oh Ranma! No!" Nokoda cried, " I just found you, I just to loose you again."   
  
At this point Nokoda was openly weeping. Ranma moved closer to her and put her arms around her warmly.  
  
"Mother, just because I'm leaving doesn't mean you can't come with me."  
  
Nokoda looked up wide eyed at her son-turned-daughter.  
  
"You mean - I can go with you?"  
  
"Yes, of course you can." Ranma softy answered "You missed out on my childhood [not that I really had one], it would be a shame if you missed your grandchild's also."  
  
"Oh Ranma!" Nokoda cried as she hugged her daughter tightly.  
  
Genma, watching all this decided to put his two cents in. (Well more like a quarter of a cent, because any thought was highly taxing on his brain.) He didn't want to be left out of any chance of an easy life - considering that Nokoda insisted that he got and kept -*shutter* -a job. He was a martial artist - why should he work? Especially after he went through all the trouble of training Ranma to do for him.  
  
"What of the schools? Honor must somehow be satisfied." [I can't let my meal ticket, er child go without something.]  
  
"Old friend, I think it is past time to let that go." Mr. Tendo said sagely "It was our folly to depend on other people to make our dreams come true for us."  
  
[Wow,] Ranma thought, [I guess years of therapy did some good for him after all] then looking over at Akane, [her too, I haven't been yelled at of malleted once since I showed up.]  
  
Genma panicked, this was not what he was expecting from his old friend.  
  
"I disagree, Soun. Trying to sound calm The agreement was made honorably. But, since it cannot be kept by this generation..." He said while waving his hands indicating Ranma and Akane, "..however, there is the next. If the child of Ranma and the child of one of your daughters were to marry, then honor would be satisfied."  
  
"Absolutely not." , "No way.", "Oh my." and "Forget it." This came unsurprisingly from all parties involved.  
  
Ranma looked at Genma with eyes blazing.   
  
"First, Genma I am no longer your child or part of the Saotome clan. By your own actions you saw to that. Second, me and my child are Masaki now, my husbands clan and YOU HAVE NO SAY SO whatsoever in what happens to my child. Third, that agreement was voided by all the other agreements YOU made dishonorably, so the pact to join the schools in reality never existed by the time we got here. And all of this is YOUR FAULT old man. So don't be dragging MY CHILD into your messes like you did with me."  
  
Ranma looked coldly at her ex-father, daring him to say something stupid. Genma, for as dense as he is, actually caught on and remained silent, wondering what to do next. Mr. Tendo looked on, with a thoughtful look.  
  
"Perhaps," Mr. Tendo said, "we can get our grandchildren together for a formal omai, say in their late teens. If anything happens, then honor would be satisfied, if not, then let's just say the families joining was never meet to be and honorably break the pledge that way. Would that be all right with you, old friend?"  
  
It wasn't all right, but dammit, Genma wasn't going to disagree with his only friend. He nodded in agreement and remain silent. [Damn! I'll still have to work.]  
  
"Fine then." Mr. Tendo continued, "We shouldn't have to worry about it for, say another 18 years."  
  
Ranma, was fuming at Mr. Tendo's suggestion at first . Then she realized that he did it in such a way that left an out for her children and his daughters children. Furthermore, the way it was worded, Genma had no choice to do nothing but except without insulting Mr. Tendo. She knew Genma's friendship with Mr. Tendo was very important to him. Most important to Ranma, Genma couldn't benefit from the current situation in anyway without offending all parties. Her respect for Mr. Tendo notched up.  
  
Cologne carefully asked, What would you have us do? Shampoo's honor would be damaged beyond repair if we returned empty-handed. Our honor must be satisfied as well.  
  
Cologne, Amazon honor does not concern me, and if your smart it shouldn't concern you either.  
  
Didn't you hear? We can't return to the village without-  
  
Then don't. Ranma cut her off, Listen, I am not going back to China with you, I'm a married woman now. A married woman with child on the way to boot. It seems to me that you have so much more here than you had in China, so I say again - don't go back. Stay here.  
  
Cologne for her part looked introspective. She may have been to lost in her past, keeping with traditions that threaten to strangle the lifeblood of the Amazons. Was it really worth going back to the village when things were better for them where they are now? She decided to discuss the with Shampoo when they got home.  
  
Akane spoke up, Can I speak with you - privately?  
  
This was the part that Ranma dreaded, of all the people in her past, she felt the closest to Akane.  
  
Sure. The dojo?  
  
Akane nodded, and rose leading Ranma out into the adjacent building. Stopping at the entrance way to the structure, she waited for Ranma pass her before entering herself and sliding the doors closed behind her.  
  
  
  
  
  
An awkward silence fell between the two twenty-something women. Ranma sighed.  
  
Akane, this is so hard. I don't want you to hate me, but I moved on with my life... I have everything I wanted. I have family who loves me, I have friends who love me - I would like you to be my friend, too.  
  
I would like that. Akane said smiling. After a pause, When I heard you were coming to visit I was afraid - so afraid - that your dad and mine would try to do something stupid like force us to get married or something.  
  
I thought of that, but it wouldn't make any difference. Two women can't get married, and I... Akane, I'm sorry, I wouldn't want to marry you.  
  
Akane visibly relaxed and exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding. She then said,  
  
Well I understand, I wouldn't want to marry you either. Nothing personnel, but you see..., Ranma, I'm a lesbian - it took me years of therapy to realize and cope with it. I was in love with your girl side - didn't really care for your boy side.  
  
  
  
Yes, as a matter of fact that's one of the main reasons I moved out of the Dojo. Daddy doesn't know I like girls way and doesn't need to know. You remember my friend from high school Yuka?  
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
Akane continued, she's my lover - we been living together for a few years now.  
  
Your old man would have a heart attack.  
  
...Or at least have to go back for more therapy. Akane added.  
  
There was a long moment of silence. A comfortable silence, a silence shared by two old friends. Each looking thoughtfully at the other and wondered, if things went alittle different - what might have been. After all, Ranma in her current form was more than alittle bisexual - as a surprised and then satisfied Royoko found out one night - but, what Akane and Ranma had was in the past. It was better that it stayed that way.  
  
C'mom, we don't want everyone to worry. Akane said while extending a hand toward Ranma.  
  
Ranma took Akane's hand and together walked back into the living room where everyone waited. Upon entering they separated, Ranma sat by her husband and leaned into and snuggled - Akane sat back where she was sitting, next to Kasumi.  
  
Well, what now?Nabiki asked more than alittle unnerved and the display of affection Ranma was showing Tenchi.  
  
Before anyone could answer a small voice rang out,  
  
Mommy, I'm hungry.  
  
Sounds like Ranko has a plan. Ranma said as her stomach growled as well.  
  
Everyone vocally agreed. In a few minutes everyone was walking toward Uchan's. At this point Ranma Asked Nabiki,  
  
Have you heard anything from Uchan since I left? she was a little nervous about seeing her old friend.  
  
Oh yes, came the reply, She is doing quite well. As a matter of fact she got married not long ago.  
  
Ranma said as she dodged a playful Ranko running around her feet. To who?  
  
Don't know who, I don't keep up with other people's business like I use to. She did say something about going on with her life and if her old man wanted revenge then he'll have to do it himself like he should have done in the first place, unstead of forcing his job on a child.  
  
Ranma gulped.  
  
Don't worry, Nabiki reassured, I don't think he has it in him, after all that's why he sent Ukyou instead of going himself. And besides you're not a Saotome anymore.  
  
True, Ranma wasn't a Saotome, but she couldn't feel comfortable about it all. After all people in her past had tried to kill her for slights real or imagined - like Ryoga. [Stupid pig wonder where he is?]  
  
WHERE THE HELL I'M I NOW?!  
  
[Shouldn't have even wondered. Ah man, this I don't need.] Ranma thought. [Better get it over with now than later - but I'm hungry - crap! First things first.]  
  
Ryoga, over here. Ranma sighed calling to the lost boy.  
  
Ryoga turned toward Ranma's call and escaped from the phone booth he'd had been lost in for two days.  
  
he said hesitantly.  
  
Yup, it's me. she replied as she stepped toward him, still arm-and arm with Tenchi how's it going P-ch ...- I mean Ryoga?  
  
Ryoga for his part was thoroughly confused by the sight in front of him. The Ranma he remembered very rarely wore dresses unless as part of a disguise, some devious plan to insult him or for a cure. It has been so long since Ryoga seen Ranma those thoughts were quickly squelched but still haunted the back of his mind. However, the thing that really got to him was the fact that Ranma was hanging onto the arm of a handsome man about her same age - and seemly perfectly comfortable and content doing so.  
  
Ranma, what are you up to?eyes narrowed.  
  
Ranma sighed at this, a confrontation was not what she wanted. a good safe answer, would you like to join us? I'll buy.  
  
Ryoga eyed Ranma and her companion, Ah, sure. Ah, who is - he said gesturing toward Tenchi.  
  
Oh! Let introduce you to Tenchi Masaki, my husband. Tenchi this is Ryoga and old friend of mine.  
  
How do you do. Tenchi greeted Ryoga as he bowed.  
  
Ryoga just stood there, staring at both Tenchi and Ranma. Ranma for her part was getting worried.  
  
Ryoga? Ryoga? she said while waving her hands in front of Ryoga's eye's. They stared straight ahead, unblinking. I think he's broke.  
  
Oh my! I think I can bring him out of it. Kasumi said while approaching the frozen form of Ryoga. When she was within an arms length of him she leaned forward face-to-face and whispered Snip, snip.  
  
Ryoga's reaction was immediate. He jumped straight up in the air and screamed.   
  
What! No I didn't mean to! I got lost as I always do!  
  
He blinked and then came to his senses, Oh! Hi Kasumi! Hee, Hee. I didn't mean to come back to the dojo. I'm sorry, I'll just be going.  
  
Wait, you're not at the dojo. Ranma said while taking Ryoga with her free hand, gently yet firmly by the arm. Ryoga blinked again and looked around.  
  
Yeah. Hee, hee. This is not the dojo. he replied sheepishly, then firmer, What's going on here? Are you really married or is this just another plot to embarrass me?  
  
Get real Ryoga. Ranma snorted, I'm not a kid anymore and I have more important things to do than play childish games like that. I like to think I've outgrown that kind of stuff - I would like to think you have too.  
  
Ryoga regarded Ranma for awhile. Then sighed, Well I am hungry, and it looks like you have a hell of a story to tell. Where are you eating?  
  
As the group moved down the street, Ranma answered,  
  
We're heading to Uchan's. I haven't seen her since I left. It will give me a chance to eat and see her - before I leave.  
  
Your leaving? You just got back.  
  
Well, I'll be gone for about a year. Then I'll be back - you see I going to have a baby and Tenchi's family wants me close to their home when I give birth. So, in two or three months we'll be moving and won't get a chance to visit until we return.  
  
With that Ryoga froze in mid-step.  
  
  
  
Hey! Don't look surprised. what do you think married people normally do anyway?  
  
  
  
C'mom, Ryoga. Don't tell me you think that it's weird for a married couple to have kids.  
  
  
  
Kasumi, would you? I think I broke him again.  
  
Kasumi smiled as she whispered into Ryoga's ear.  
  
Snip, snip  
  
Ryoga did a repeat of his earlier performance. After Ranma calmed him again, the group proceeded into Uchan's without further delays.  
  
**********  
  
There was a moderate crowd inside Uchan's when the Dojo group entered. Uchan without looking up from her grill called out,  
  
Welcome to Uchan's, please help yourself to a seat.  
  
Finding an open booth near the back and pulling a table over, everyone's seating was then accommodated. At the table Ranma sat between her mother and Tenchi, Genma sat opposite them next to Soun. Akane, Nabiki and Kasumi sat together with Dr. Tofu, Ranko. The Amazons, Happosai and Ryoga rounding out the booth. After settling a waitress came over with menus and began passing them out while orally listing the day's specials.  
  
Ranma looked signaled her over with a wave of her hand.  
  
I'll have the Ranma special.  
  
But madam, we don't have a ranma special.   
  
You do, just tell Uchan, she'll know want to do. [which I hope doesn't include killing me.] Ranma prayed.  
  
The waitress gave Ranma a odd look then headed over to the grill. Ranma watched with nervous eyes as the waitress leaned over and spoke with Uchan. Uchan's eyes got big as she replied to the waitress who then pointed and the table where Ranma and company were sitting. Ukyou looked to where the waitress was pointing and her and Ranma's eyes met. Ukyou vaulted over the grill and marched over to the table, with her big-ass Spatula in hand all the time looking at Ranma in the eye.   
  
[This doesn't look good] Ranma thought.   
  
Tenchi picking up on Ranma's distress, put a protective arm around her shoulder. This action made Ukyou come up short.  
  
Ranma, is that you? Ukyou finally uttered. Ranma seemed to be hearing that question alot lately.  
  
Hi Ucha- I mean Ukyou. How are you doing. Ranma was feeling very uncomfortable.  
  
Ahh - fine... she replied as her eyes drifted over to Tenchi. Ranma caught this as everyone looked on.  
  
My husband.  
  
I - see. Then her eyes harded, I'm afraid I must ask you to leave.  
  
Ukyou, please lets talk about this..  
  
All heads in the eatery turned at this. There is nothing to talk about -I don't need you here opening up old wounds. I am happy now for the first time in a long time and I won't have it ruined by you. Now please LEAVE!  
  
pausing to swallow, if that's how you feel about it. as Ranma stood, a voice from the back of the booth spoke up,  
  
I want him -er, her to stay... um... please. It was Ryoga.  
  
Ukyou stood, thinking deep in thought, flexing her hand that was holding her big-ass-spatula as if trying to decide whether to use it or not.  
  
Why should I? she replyed, eyes still hard.  
  
Because I think he, er I mean she owes us both an explanation - and we can't get that by throwing her out. Ryoga stammered out.  
  
Ukyou looking down, sighed deeply.  
  
Okay. It better be good. she said as she pulled herself into an unoccupied chair We got a couple of hours before my husband comes home, so start explaining.  
  
Ukyou signaled for another cook to take her place at the grill as she sat down. The waitress quickly took the orders and served everyone. After everyone had eaten and the plates cleared, Ranma settle to tell her tale. With her battle spatula beside her and arms folded, Ukyou waited for Ranma to begin.  
  
Well, after I was thrown out and abandoned, I wandered all over Tokyo finally ending up in Juuban.  
  
But why didn't you come to me?! Ukyou interupted.  
  
I thought of that, when I was disowned, a hard look was aimed Gemna's way, I was determined I was not going to honor any promises that my ex-father had made. Coming to you, as tempting as it was at the time would look too much like I was trying to fullfill one of the Panda-man's promises. I'm sorry - but that's how I felt at the time. So, I didn't - instead I struck out on my own, determined to fine my own way.  
Anyway, I ended up in Juuban. Made some friends, friends that stood with me even after explaining the curse and proving it after I managed to get it unlocked.  
  
Your curse is unlocked then why are you still a girl?   
  
All eyes were on the redhead, she let out a sigh,  
  
Because by the time I found a way to unlock myself I was happy the way I am. Happier than I was when I was a guy - and other things I'll get to later.  
  
Ukyou sighed and signaled for Ranma to continue.  
  
Anyway, I made friends, real friends. Friends that were caring about what I thought and felt, not what I can do for them or get out of me. Friends that I could count on and who in turn can count on me. I met and joined the Sailor Senshi, yes I am one and proud of it. During this time Happosai turned up and made my life hell for awhile until I past his final test and he started trainning me seriously.  
  
At this point all heads turned to the undersized martial arts master.  
  
Well, I had to see if she was worthy of being my heir. After all can't have the ultimate techniques of Anything Goings fall into the wrong hands. He said while lighting his pipe. Genma and Soun were disappointments and unworthy of being truly trained in the art.  
  
Ah... what kind of tests were they? Ukyou sqeeked out, trying to imagine every preverted thing that Happosai could think of and call a test.  
  
It was a morality test. Happosai answered, letting out a stream of smoke, Ranma and Ranma alone among my many students had the will to resist my evil and temptation, even under situations that would benefit him directly. Something that Genma or any of my other students could not do.  
The panty raids I did were a test to see if anyone would dare try to stop me. Everything else was to see how far a person would go to try to do right, protect those who couldn't protect themselves from me. Even over the most insurmountable odds, Ranma never wavered. No one really tried like Ranma here did, she used everything short of killing me to stop me - all along getting stronger and stronger. The final test is one that we are both honor bound not to discuss - but, she convinced me that she was the heir I have searching for and waiting for for so long.  
  
He taught me secrets of Anything goes that make every other form a martial arts seem like a joke. Ranma took up the conversation again, this time regarding Cologne Even the Amazon ru is like baby steps compared to the full knowledge of 7,000 years of Anything Goes. Came in real handy when it came to killing daemons and yomas.  
  
How did... Ukyou waved a hand toward Tenchi.  
  
Oh, he came later, when I went to Tokoyo University. Ranma then proceeded in filling Ukyou and Ryoga in on the events that lead to meeting, being courted and marriage to Tenchi. It was then Ranma dropped the fact she was expecting, and will be leaving in three months to live on another planet for a year.  
  
Was Ryoga's only comment.  
  
You said it sugar. Ranma how long will it take you to get to... to...  
  
  
  
  
  
Not long, as Sailor Sun I am the senshi of nexus of time and space. I'll just create a warp in the space-time continum and basically step into Jurai.  
  
Just like that? ask Akane  
  
Just like that Replied Ranma, I already done it several times, you know to visit my inlaws and such. Hell of alot faster than taking months in a Starship.  
  
Everyone boggled at the ideal of going to another world, light years from the Earth as easily as walking into a room.  
  
Ranma finally broke the heavy silence that have fallen over the group, well almost silence - Ranko getting board again started humming a little tune while bopping her head to the beat.  
  
Ukyou, can we again freinds, please? I know you have every right to hate me - but I think it would be great to have you in my life again. As friends.  
  
Ukyou regarded Ranma for awhile before answering. True, she thought, it hurt when he - she disappeared all those years ago, but that was the past - six years in the past. Could she forget the ten years she spent pursuing Ranma and her father for vengence? After all, she it tell her own father to stick it and got on with her life. She was married to someone she loved, she had gotten over Ranma, the Ranma she knew was more of a memory now. A memory of a boy she knew as a child, then later, for awhile, as a teenager. Along time ago....  
  
I don't know Ranma, part of me knows it is in the past and another part of me still feels stabbed in the back. I understand up here - she said while pointing to her head, but here - pointing at her heart, I still feel betrayed.  
  
I'm sorry Ukyou.  
  
I'm sorry too.  
  
Well then, we should be going. Soun said as he picked up his sleeping grand-daughter.  
  
As the group rose from their seats amid a corus of agreements to that statement. Ukyou held her hand out to Ranma.  
  
Please come visit when you get back from.. whatever. I maybe thinking different then - but for now, I need time to think about this.  
  
You got it Ucha- Ukyou. Ranma said while lightly shaking the extended hand.  
  
Ryoga then came up to the pair, also extended his hand.   
  
Take care Ranma. Maybe we'll see each other sometime.  
  
Yeah - eh, she said while shaking his hand, then adding playfully with your sense of direction, I wouldn't be surprised if you turn up on Jurai.  
  
Ryoga turned beet red, nodded at this, grunted and headed for the door. Somewhere between the table and the door, all twenty feet of it, he got lost.  
  
*************  
  
Three months later, at the Satome home.  
  
Now dear, when I get back I expect the house to be in the same condition I left it in. Do you understand? Nokoda amonished Genma.  
  
Yes dear.  
  
And you are to keep your job to pay for it's upkeep. If I come back and fine that you have been slacking off and hocking things -your situation could get dire. she continued while fingering her wrapped katanna.  
  
Yes dear. Genma big sweated.  
  
And I expect everything to be tidy and clean when we return, after all our grand child will be with us and will not do to bring him or her into a pigsty. Is that clear?  
  
Yes dear.  
  
Nokoda turned to her daughter and son-in-law.   
  
Well thats cleared up. Ready when you are, dears.  
  
With that Ranma tranformed into her senshi form. The only modifcation was that the skirt was now taylored and more modest to accomidate her swollen belly. Arm extended, her open hand closed and the Sol Sword spung to life in it. Making a vertical slash, the air seemed to rent it as if cut, Ranma then sabbed the tear and spun the sword around and it widened enough to comfortably walk thru.  
  
Turning to her mother and her husband, After you.  
  
The pair stepped into the hole in mid air and faded from view. Ranma followed without even saying goodbye to her ex-father, she then step into her future.  
  
  
________________________________________  
  
Ending author notes:  
  
Lets see, I got (in no particular order)  
  
1. Ranma stuck as a girl  
2. Ranma getting disowned  
3. Ranma returning after years missing  
4. Ranma accepting his girl side  
5. Ranma dealing with Cologne  
6. Ranma still being the best  
7. Ranma is a powerful Sailor Senshi  
8. Ranma married  
9. Ranma married to Tenchi  
10. Akane being a lesbian  
11. Kasumi married to Tofu  
12. Moose leaving, giving up on Shampoo  
13. Ranma reconciling with her mother  
14. Ranma's mother accepting the curse  
15. Ranma pregnant  
16. Happosai training Ranma seriously  
17. Ukyou not quite accepting Ranma  
18. Ukyou moving on with her life  
19. Genma still being an idiot  
20. Nokoda still with the katana  
21. Ryoga getting lost, still  
22. Ryoga - not quite sure about him  
23. A happy ending  
24. Leaving plenty of room for back stories, if I feel like it  
  
I think that almost covers it.  
  
Those who are about write about the OOC, please bear in mind that young people change and mature over time. For most people, they are hardly the same person they were at 16 than they are at 22. Hell, most people I know, or knew grew and changed faster than than, except maybe the Genma's of the world (they're alway some of those). However, I'v seen a very few people that are like Genma (thank god!).  
The only ideal that is probably original is the one that Happosai using his panty raids and other perverted acts as a test of morality for his students, using it to judge their worth. I've read lots of fanfiction and I have yet to see that take on Happosai. That maybe a story I'll do at some point, if I can think of a interesting way of approaching it.  



	2. Juuban part 0

Author needs help.  
  
I am starting on this as a back story to (which was intended as a one-shot) and I need some help with the Sailor Moon characters. I have a general idea of the characters but no details.  
  
I now have a fairly good outline written down on what direction I want to take this story.   
  
Once again all characters, situations and the Town Lake Bridge are not mine. However, I had to rent the grammar and spelling errors this time.  
  
____________________________________________  
  
  
Juuban - part 0  
  
  
An empty street.  
  
It was night. It was raining. She was alone.  
  
Still she walked on.  
  
She was wet, depressed, angry and she was alone. Truly alone for the first time in her life. Oh, she had been alone before - training trips and whatever - but always secure in the knowledge that somebody would be waiting for her at the end of the trip or adventure she got caught up in.   
  
She walked on, water spashing with each step.  
  
Dark thoughts of her father -no, her ex-father - filtered into her brain, the cold words that he had said still in her ears, the disappointment that was etched upon his face and the anger in his eyes. Damn him! She couldn't even go to her mother, thanks to that stupid pledge. She thought about it though, going to her mother and confessing everything, maybe death would be a release from this hell of her so-called life. But she wasn't ready to give up yet, she always said Ranma Sao- no, can't say Saotome anymore, from now on its Ranma, just Ranma, and Ranma never loses, or in this case never gives up.  
  
She walked on, with water filled shoes squishing.  
  
Pop's - no, - Genma trying to force Ranma into marrying Soun to fulfill the pact to join the schools and then disowning her in front of the Tendo's after she refused - wasn't the worst of it. She could deal with those thoughts, after all it was just Genma and he was an idiot. A dishonorable idiot at that.  
  
She walked faster.  
  
It was the memory of the reaction, or lack there of, that the Tendo's had that cut more deeply than anything: Akane's stunned look, Nabiki's cool indifference, Kasumi's look of frozen horror and Soun's crying about the future of his dojo. Not one of them lifting a finger to help her or stopping Genma from doing what he did. They just stood there, watching, letting her suffering increase tenfold and not one of them coming forward to aid her or saying what was going on was wrong.  
  
You are no longer my child.  
  
She quickened her step at the memory of the words her father spoke.  
  
You are a stranger to me.  
  
She splashed through puddles, blindly, not heeding anything that might be in her way.  
  
If you refused to uphold the family honor, then maybe you should go whore yourself like the honorless girl you now are.  
  
Tears now mingled with the rain that was flowing freely down her face, so blinded was she that she didn't see the street lamp until she collided with it sending her sprawling onto the wet pavement. She laid there in the rain, weeping for all that she had lost - realizing she never truly possessed what she thought.  
  
They were like family.... but,  
  
No one helped her. No one spoke for her. No one cared about her.  
  
No one loved her.  
  
Pushing herself into a sitting position, looking skyward she silently cursed the rain that spattered on her face, matting her red hair where it fell and stinging her eyes. The water coursing down her form, soaking her, leaving her and as cold and miserable on the outside as she felt on the inside. Maybe this was hell.  
  
Maybe she should go to her mother.  
  
No! She shook her head. No, she would not do that. She was stronger than that. If they wouldn't help her in her hour of need, in spite of the countless times she had helped them, than they were not worth being with. They were the one's without honor. They were the one's that did nothing but use her for their own advantage without any regard for her feelings or her dignity. They were the one's who discarded her like some object or thing that has outlived it's usefulness and didn't want to be troubled with it anymore.   
  
She was better off without them. She was better than them. She will survive.  
  
She had to believe she would.  
  
She stood with that last thought, leaning against the lamp post and let out a heavy sigh while wiping the remaining tears and rain from her eyes. Readjusting the straps of her pack, she then wandered aimlessly without any destination in mind or anyplace to go. Walking was all she could do - walking was the **only** thing she could do. So...  
  
She walked on.   
  
Trying to walk the pain that was in her heart out.  
  
*********************************  
  
Scenes from her life  
  
BANG  
  
Ranma jerked with a start from her sleep.  
  
RUMBLE, RUMBLE, RUMBLE  
  
[**Damn!** Every morning. I wish that **damn** truck would take a different **damn** route.] Ranma groused to herself as she unfolded herself from the space beneath the bridge. Carefully stretching her stiff muscles she shouldered her pack and made her way down the embankment toward the river, carefully stepping over or around the other homeless residents of the bridge that were still sleeping.   
  
[Funny, I never used to notice people like this - until I became one of them. Now they seem to be everywhere.] she thought to herself as she stepped around a man sleeping on some cardboard, hugging a garbage bag of his meager posessions as his slept. Long not noticing the smell anymore she continued on her trek, [I wonder what they do in the winter - I wonder what I'll do in the winter.]  
  
While it was true that Ranma spent a great deal of time on the road with her father, traveling in hot or cold weather, they would usually find a shrine or dojo to hold up in during the coldest months of the year. Being only 16 and with no family, Ranma was finding it impossible to find a job much less having any money for a place to stay. You're too young - go find someplace else to work! they would say or some such nonsense. Yeah, right. Ranma was unsure as to what to do, but she knew she would think of something. [Maybe I can find a dojo to take me in.]  
  
Upon reaching the water she set her pack beside her and removed a plastic cup that she had found a few days ago and proceeded to rinse the night sweats' off her clothed body. She felt awaken and refreshed as the cold water cascaded down her face and arms even as she shivered at its touch. Using her hands to squeegee the excess water off of her, she stood and stretched again. Reshouldering her pack, she gave a last look at her and climbed the embankment to the street.  
  
[Time to do some grocery shopping.] Her stomach agreed with a rumble.  
  
****************  
  
It smelled bad; very, very bad.  
  
Ranma knew she had to endure if she was going to eat.  
  
Digging around looking for something that wasn't too gross looking she rattled around in the dumpster in the alley behind an eatery. Finding a half eaten sandwich, wrapped in the paper that it was served in was a prize in itself. After brushing off some tea leaves, [when was the last time I had tea?] she placed the valuable food into her grocery bag, a discarded green plastic bag she scrounged up, she proceeded to dig some more until she found enough edible trash for breakfast.  
  
Making her way to a nearby park, she instinctively hid as she spied a uniformed man patrolling the street. The local truancy officer had been making a real pest of himself the last few days and Ranma was in no mood to deal with him. Just her luck, ending up in a part of Tokyo that took education more seriously than where she came from. After she was sure he was gone, she entered the park and selected from one of the many empty benches. After settling into her seat she removed her pack, she then opened her shopping bag, and then feasted.  
  
Looking around for the first time today she noticed that the sky was smoky and overcast, a leftover from the rains that plagued the preceding days. Though it didn't look like it would rain, the overall effect was that of a blanket had been placed over the city - covering it protectively. A light haze obscured the nearby high rise shops that lined the street opposite the park. Ranma sighed. Days like this were made to go out in, where the morning air was sharp and still clean from the past rains and the clouds shielded the sun that would ordinarily beat down on you. A slight wind blew , ruffling her already ruffled bangs as she finished eating.  
  
[Such a nice day, I hope no one messes with me today.]   
  
Since living on the streets, Ranma has discovered, much to her displeasure, that some men felt it was alright to take "liberties" with her. Copping a feel here (which earns a broken finger to the perpetuator) to, in one instance, someone actually trying to make off with her while she slept (which earned a beating for the perverted bastard). That came about from the only time she tried to sleep on a park bench, she has since discovered sleeping under the bridge was the safest place.  
  
Ranma was starting to form a very low opinion of men and life in general. Rising from her "breakfast table", she grabbed her pack and headed off.  
  
Moving to a more isolated part of the park, she set about doing a slow kata, losing herself in the rhythm of the movement, stretching her being for the real exercise to come. Once she felt she was reasonably warmed up, she moved into higher forms blending complex attack and defensive moves into a seamless, fast and deadly dance.   
  
The art was all she had left, and she would not lose it.  
  
**********  
  
Another mindless day, another morning work out had just finished.  
  
Ranma was not sure how much time had pasted since she first started living on the streets (or under them), the days just seem to run together. She just seemed to be. She'd got into a routine, everyday doing the same thing. Get up, eat, work on improving her art, eat, improve her art, eat, improve her art, eat (if she could find anything not picked over by that time of day), then sleep.  
  
The very thought that she had no idea of how much time has past, didn't seem to bother her in the least. All of the days just seem to run together in one big blur. If you do nothing worth remembering, than what's the point of even bothering to keep track of time. Memories are all that make up a person anyways and Ranma's recent memories haven't been worth the effort of keeping up with or sorting out.   
  
Her behavior had been changing while she had been living on the streets as well, things that use to enrage and generally piss her off now just barely registered. She was becoming use to the way she was being treated. Recent evidence was when the latest salary man to make a good grab from behind, and with his hands squeezed both of Ranma's breasts together, instead of breaking the guys hands like she use to, she just simply brushed him off. Of course being "brushed off" by Ranma still meant the guy ended up on his rear, but he still came away intact. It had all became too common place and ordinary for her, so routine that she didn't get mad about it or really think about it anymore. Just another ordinary day. She started taking to avoiding people in general now. She found that usually prevented problems, and when problems did arrive, she would them off as well.  
  
Time to clean up before lunch.  
  
Walking into the restroom of the park, making sure it was empty, she stripped off all her clothing and washed the best she could with the sink and the hand soap from the dispenser. After getting reasonably clean, she redressed into some relatively clean cloths she had washed the day before. Then taking the clothes she was wearing she washed them in the sink and then using a small amount of ki dried them.  
  
Learning to control her ki like that took some doing. She didn't want her clothes to become stinky from improper drying but her training in the past always emphasized power over control. To dry clothes properly with ki you needed control over power, or you'll end up with smoking rags instead of dry clothes.  
  
She had to hurry, the lunch rush was about to begin if she was lucky she could get something to eat from the top of the trash instead of having to dig around for it.  
  
************  
  
Afternoons were for her ki training.  
  
Ranma had to start almost from scratch. Her Moko Takabisha was nowhere near as powerful as it once was, just a dim reminder of her past . After the events with Herb, her ex-father, the Tendo's and topping it all off living like she had over the past few - however long it's been - has been a severe blow to her confidence.   
  
She had to retrain herself to try to use a more neutral, more balanced method of generating ki. She beat herself over and over the head until she found a way. She found a way to tap into her very will to live. The advantage was that it depended on no emotional base to focus on and as long as she wanted to live she would generate the amount of ki she needed.  
  
Controlling it was somewhat daunting. Before all she had to do was concentrate her confidence into a single point in her being then sending it to where ever she needed it. Now using her will to live alone she had to spread it over a wider area of her body, it was too powerful to concentrate to a single point. Her first and only attempt of doing so made her feel like she was tearing her body apart from the inside. First she thought that maybe the technique was flawed, she would have to find something other than her willpower to channel. Then she thought maybe all she needed to do was toughen upto withstand the strain, later she laughed at that. Living like she was, if she wasn't toughened up' by now she never would be.  
  
************  
  
After training, back to the ladies room in the park to clean up.  
  
Then dinner at the local dumpster.  
  
Then finding a good spot under "her" bridge.  
  
************  
  
Another day.  
  
**************  
  
Another day.  
  
**************  
  
Another day.  
  
**************  
  
Another day.  
  
**************  
  
  
Another day. Another alley. Another dumpster.  
  
Ranma was digging more nosily and more aggressively than usual.  
  
This time Ranma was pissed.  
  
[How dare they!] Ranma fumed to herself, [Those pigs! Just because a girl (Ranma had unconsciously over time taken to referring to herself in a female tense) is out on the street alone doesn't mean she wants to do.. to do... What the hell gave them the right to think that. And waving all that money at me, thinking that will get me to.. to... those bastards! Thinking I'm some kind'a whore just because I live under a bridge! What the hell was wrong with them?!]  
  
[they had money]  
  
Ranma froze somewhat with that thought, slowing her hunt for dinner.  
  
[No!] shaking her head, [They could take their money and shove it. I wont do that, I can't!]  
  
[you're already a ronin, a dishonorable ronin at that. what's alittle more dishonor?]  
  
Pause.  
  
[No! I can't believe I'm thinking about this!] Ranma's hands closed into fists, squishing used paper napkins and garbage between her slender fingers, [I would rather die in the streets than do that.]  
  
[if you don't do anything, that's exactly what will happen.]  
  
[...]  
  
[would you rather die cold and hungry on the streets, or with a full belly and warm in some bed somewhere? is keeping your really worth it?]  
  
[...]  
  
[well what are you going to do? - winter will not wait for you to decide. Might as well do it now than have circumstances force you to do it anyway. you're going to have to do something.]  
  
With that, out of nowhere, the last words of her father came back to haunt her,  
  
"...then maybe you should go whore yourself like the honorless girl you now are.  
  
Ranma froze some more and felt a pang deep within, completely forgetting about digging for her dinner.  
  
[what's alittle more dishonor?]  
  
[No f@%*ing way!] Ranma fumed to herself [I can make it. I can do anything I set out to do! I'm the best! I'm the best martial artist there is, the best that ever was - why I could... I could...]   
  
[have you took a good look around you lately?]  
  
She faltered.  
  
Ranma looked around her like it was for the first time in her life. She was prone atop of a small mound of filth, arms outstretched, raking thru the smelly (very smelly) garbage culling out items that she deemed editable. She recoiled from her prone position and into a sitting one, looking at her hands - hands that could split concrete walls if she wanted, hands now covered in filth. Her hands began to shake, the rest of her soon followed.  
  
[Oh God! I'm digging in someone's trash for food.] she though despairingly, [I don't have a name, I don't a home, I don't have anything - how did **this** become **normal**? How did I get like this? What did I do to deserve this? How did I come to this?]  
  
Ranma's began to shake even more, tears threaten her eyes.  
  
[No! I will not do this. I will not cry. I am a man. Men don't cry. Only weak women or...] sniffle [...silly...] sniffle[...girls cry] Taking a shuddering breath to try and clam herself, [Yeah, right. Like everything else my father told me, that's was a lie too.]  
  
Ranma, still shaking, began slowly pulling herself together. She sat there, arms hugging her knees, fighting the emotional and moral turmoil that was raging inside her. Ignoring the smell of the refuse that was surrounding her, she tried to think.  
  
[Damn it!] bong as she hit the inside of the dumpster, [What am I going to do? Can't I get even one break?]  
  
[the only breaks are the one's you make]  
  
[SHUT UP!]  
  
Ranma so intent on her plight, didn't notice when a small, snow haired lady in her mid-60's come out of the rear of the building carrying a large clear plastic garbage bag and approached the dumpster.  
  
*******************   
  
Akiko Yonai had a rough dinner rush. Considering that her families resturant was only open for lunch and dinner that was saying alot. Her granddaughter was a big help in the evenings, but lately the dinner crowd has been picking up at such a pace, it has been too much for the young girl to handle and her son Yoshi was so swamped in the kitchen, it was all he could do to keep up. The last waitress she hired only lasted a few weeks. Sigh. She would have to hire someone else to help out in the evenings. It was at this point she heard a loud bong from the dumpster, and thought [What in the world?]  
  
Slowly approaching the dumpster, not noticing the pack beside it, she peeked over the edge into it.  
  
May I help you young lady?  
  
  
  
Ranma jumped, bonking her head on the overhanging cover of the dumpster, she then fell back into the smelly refuse. Gasping for air, hands clasp tightly to her chest, desperately trying to keep her heart from escaping the confines for her heaving chest.  
  
M... may I help you young lady? Akiko repeated.  
  
Ranma laid there, still panting, trying to catch her breath, trying to find her center before stuttering out,  
  
I... I...   
  
Ranma then froze wide eyed, why did her voice seemed so alien to her? Then it hit her, when was the last time she talked to anyone? Even with the recent confrontation with the perverts, she had remain silent through all of it, telegraphing her meaning with a shake of her head or a gesture of her hands - many of them obscene. She didn't know what to say or what to do. In a city with millions of people, she hardly had spoken to anyone in almost - she didn't even know how long.   
  
It was at that moment her loneliness and hopelessness crushed her. For the first time since she could remember, Ranma wept openly in front of a stranger.  
  
Akiko was also at a loss. Here was a strange girl no older that her granddaughter, digging through her dumpster, going from wide eyed and (to her) frightened to sobbing spoke volumes of the pain she endured. What on earth could have happened to such a lovely young girl to reduce her to such a state. Akiko's maternal instints kicked in and being the grandmother type, she decided to help this poor girl anyway she could.  
  
Come on dear, let's get you out of there and cleaned up, and get you something to eat while we're at it.  
  
B... but -  
  
We can talk all about that later dear, after your taken care of. Now come along . Akiko said with an commanding yet compellingly Kasumi-like manner while offering her hand to assist Ranma out of the dumpster.  
  
Ranma looked at the hand through eyes still filled with tears, and took it.  
  
****************  
  
Pluto watched with deep red eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. It wouldn't do if she had to prematurely intervene again at this stage. If Ranma had even suspected that the last three years of his - no her life had been manipulated before fully understanding the meaning behind the manipulations, there could be unfortunate consequences. One of them being Pluto's own death if Ranma's ire was raised enough, and the mistrust in the people Ranma needed to give her trust to. She would react very badly if she found out too soon that it was Pluto that arranged for Genma to find the book of Forbidden Training Grounds' that lead to Ranma getting cursed...  
  
...to having her show up at the Cat Cafe', just when Herb was there and getting her curse locked...  
  
...to making sure that the kettle would be out of reach, to keep her in her cursed form...  
  
...to allowing life on the street to break her, so she could be rebuilt into what was needed.  
  
Overall Pluto felt that she had been fairly successful, given how limited her influence was in Ranma's life.   
  
That was the thing to consider...  
  
...Ranma's life had proven to be exceedingly difficult to affect given her unpredictable nature. Pluto could not be sure with any certainty how things would play out in the end. Not hearing from any of her future selves was disquieting.  
  
Unfortunately, unforeseen and unpredictable events had lead to this desperate plan to awaken this Senshi before her time. It couldn't be helped. The First Enemy has gotten cleverer and almost escaped Pluto's watchful eyes. Almost.   
  
If the enemy were detected earlier, then Pluto could have arranged a fatal accident for Ranma in his childhood ending this life, but as it is now she would be reborn far too late to help in the coming fight. Pluto's only option was to do what she did, and thus bring about a whole new set of problems. She hopes Ranma would forgive her.  
  
It all had to be handled carefully, the Yonai family matriarch was the perfect person to help Ranma with her through life's difficulties, a role model of sorts. Akiko's granddaughter, Michiko will be the perfect person to get Ranma more comfortable with being a girl. Ranma had to accept it, too much was at stake for her not to. A stable environment to ground Ranma in while her old memories were slowly (very slowly) being awakened would be a great boost in preparing her what was to come.  
  
Pluto had to move slowly and carefully.  
  
If Pluto moved too fast the consequences were...  
  
... an unstoppable and dangerously insane Ranma, wiping out the entire solar system.  
  
_____________________________  
  
Hope I got all my edits in this time.  



	3. Juuban part 1

This is chapter three of part two (which is part 1) of my first fan fiction of my (suppose to be) one shot that somehow grew.  
  
Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
I, once again own none of these characters. All spelling and grammar errors are bought and paid for so I'll gladly claim those.  
  
____________________________________  
  
Juuban - part 1  
  
*****************  
  
Akiko lead Ranma in thru the back door of the restaurant. Ranma, somehow remembering her pack, allowed herself to be lead by the hand. She was not really paying attention to her environment. So powerful was her outburst, it left her feeling mentally and emotionally exhausted. She felt numb and lost, awash in a sea of emotional uncertainty. She didn't notice as Akiko steered her through the kitchen, a sizable, but empty dinning room up a flight of stairs and into a bathroom.  
  
Here we are dear, let's get you cleaned up.  
  
Wha.. what?  
  
Akiko looked up from the sink where she was washing her hands.  
  
Let's get you cleaned up' Akiko repeated patently, obvious to her charges condition, then added, you start while I find you something clean to change into.  
  
With that Akiko dried her hands, and silently left the bathroom.  
  
After she left, Ranma stood there, still stunned from the sudden turn of events. Taking in her surroundings for the first time, she found herself in a modest bath room. The room was smaller than the one at the Tendo's, cozy would be the best word used to describe it. The tile was small and in a pale blue-speckled with solid white tile inter-spaced randomly. Two stools were up against the wall, one on its side near the bathing area with an inverted bucket laying nearby, a shower head on a flexible hose attached to the faucets that would come to just below chest level if she were sitting on one of the stools before it. In the corner, below a high window, was a small deep furro , again not as large as the one at the Tendo's but comfortable enough for one, maybe two people, if you were small enough - or close enough. Again the only word Ranma could think of to describe the whole scene was cozy. With that thought, she began to strip off her soiled clothes.  
  
Across the hall Akiko knocked twice on a door that was decorated with small stickers of idol singers, and without waiting for an answer, entered the room. The room's lone occupant looked up from the book and papers she had laid out before her on the low laying table with questioning eyes.  
  
She was good looking girl in her teens, her eyes the same color as her grandmothers, hazel. Her face was oval shaped, and she had the habit of twirling a lock of her shoulder length light brown hair around a finger while studying. But right at this moment she had the tried look of a coal miner, trying to dig herself out of a mountain of homework.  
  
"Michiko, dear, we have guest, can I borrow some of your clothes until we can do something with the ones she has."  
  
"Yes, of course, Grandma, who is it?" she inquired while raising from her seated position.  
  
"I'm not sure. I found the poor dear rummaging through our dumpster in the back. I think she was looking for something to eat."  
  
"To eat? From our dumpster?" she asked while extracting a light red dress from her closet before crossing her room to a small dresser to pull other items out of a drawer.  
  
"Yes, I think the poor thing was been living on the street for lord only knows how long - she is a lovely looking girl - I can't imagine what could have happen to her.  
  
"A run away?" Michiko ventured.  
  
"Somehow I don't think so. I don't think she looked the type to run away from anything if she could help it, something about her eyes tell me so." Akiko had always thought herself as a good judge of character, a trait that has served her well throughout her life. It helped her find a good man for a husband and avoid the 'bad apples' in her life. She trusted her feelings toward Ranma.  
  
" We'll find out more, once she's cleaned up. Could you do me a favor dear, and get some food started for our guest? Tomorrow is Sunday, so you won't have any school, you could finish your homework then."  
  
Michiko nodded as she exited her room and headed for the stairs. Gathering the clothing she got from Michiko, Akiko crossed the way over to the bathroom, she halted at the door and knocked twice before entering.  
  
*********************  
  
Ranma was sitting on one of the stools, scrubbing herself down. It was alot more work than she figured. She had always thought she had been keeping reasonably clean using the rest rooms in the park for washing, but the more she scrubbed the more dirt and grim seem to come out. What was really scary the filth never seemed to stop coming off her. The water that was going down the floor drain was as muddy and the river water that she used to rise herself off in the mornings. She sighed heavily. She had not even started on her hair yet. She was just undoing the dragon's whisker from the end of her pigtail when two soft knocks interrupted her.  
  
Akiko quickly enter the bathroom and look at her charge. She set the borrowed clothes upon one of the small shelves that was set over the sink and crossed the short distance to Ranma and began helping her unbraid her hair.  
  
"Here sweetie, let me help you with that."  
  
"Ah.. it's okay, I don't want to be much of a bother."  
  
"It's quite all right sweetie, if it was a bother I wouldn't have brought you in. Now let me help you with your hair."  
  
Ranma remained still as Akiko unbraided her hair. "I.. I'm sorry" she said as the last of the hair was unlocked, " I don't even no your name."  
  
"That's okay child, I was so concerned about you, I'm afraid I didn't have time to make proper introductions. My name is Akiko"."  
  
"I'm Ranma, sorry about this."  
  
"You have nothing to be sorry for child, lets get you cleaned up and feed and then you can tell me all about it."  
  
The rest of the bath was spent in silence.   
  
*******************  
  
It took some doing to finally get clean. Ranma's hair was more of a mess than she could imagine. It took at least four washing before Akiko declared Ranma's hair clean enough. After being scrubbed and washed, Ranma felt warm and light. She felt like she lost 20 pounds, all of it dirt. While she was drying off Akiko excused herself to check on the food that her grand daughter was preparing, leaving Ranma alone.  
  
Ranma stared at herself in the floor length mirror that was located just to the right of the bathroom door, opposite the wall with the two shelves and the sink. It was the first time she was able to see all of her in god knows how long. Life on the streets had changed her, gone was the baby fat that smoothed her frame and accentuated her female figure, and in its place was a thin, lean, and muscled frame - alittle too thin as the ribs of her chest and hips were clearly visible through her taunt skin.  
  
Her skin, her skin used to be almost milky in complexion, on it looked sickly and pale to her. Her eyes haven't changed, still blue. Her face was thinner and her hair! Her unbound hair was halfway down, no! almost to the small of her back - how long **was** she on the streets? That was the question she kept coming back to. How long? On the streets she didn't care - one day was the same as every other - now looking at herself for the first time in so long, she couldn't help but wonder.  
  
She examined her arms and legs, both were thinner but more muscular - a tribute to doing nothing but martial arts everyday. Her abdomen was slightly sunken in, a tribute to the lack of edible food she has been finding everyday. The thinness of her body seem to make her already impressive assets seem even more so. Coming back to her hair, she noticed that it seemed to have lost a lot of its shine, it was frizzy with split ends that hung like a halo around her head.  
  
[My god. I was dying - and I didn't even realize it.] Ranma agonized to herself.  
  
She felt like she looked like hell.  
  
"You clean up rather well."  
  
Ranma turned to the voice, and for the first time got a good look at the woman who brought her here.  
  
Studying her host for the first time she, she noted that she was not a fighter. The short, even shorter that Ranma's girl form, snow haired woman seemed to radiate and quite power, a peaceful quite power. A power that one respected whether you were consciously aware of it or not. Piercing hazel eyes set deep within a oval face shined with an inner determination that burned all their own. Ranma decided that her host, if need be could be a force to be reckoned with.  
  
After examining Akiko, Ranma suddenly feeling uncomfortable staring at her host, inverted her eyes, studying the tiled floor instead.  
  
Come, child. Let's get you dressed and then get you something to eat.  
  
******************  
  
Akiko watched Ranma eat, she never seen anyone eat quite like this before. Ranma was carefully inspecting almost every bite of food before it entered her mouth, once there it would disappear almost without chewing. Then the next bite would be picked up examined carefully then devoured. Akiko wonder what Ranma was looking for in the food, then remembering where she found her, it all came into sharp focus.  
  
Ranma finished the last bite of her food, after careful inspection.  
  
Thank you for feeding me. Ranma said softly from her seat, adding in a bow.  
  
That's quite alright, dear. Akiko answered, Michiko, would you please be a sweetie and take care of the plates, just leave them by the sink, I'll take care of them tomorrow.  
  
The plates were then cleared.  
  
"So tell me Akiko Began, "how did come to be in our dumpster?"  
  
By that time Michiko had returned and reclaimed her seat.  
  
Ranma was sitting at one of the tables in the restaurant with Akiko in front and Michiko to her right. She was wearing the barrowed dress, that surprising fit her well, considering Michiko was taller and more filled out than her. Ranma's long red locks were tied into a long ponytail with the refastened dragon's whisker. She didn't really want to make eye contact with anyone - she found from past experiences that usually causes - problems.   
  
"Ah... I was hungry."  
  
"Yes sweetie, but how did you end up there?" Akiko prompted.  
  
"Ah... I ... was disowned." Ranma answer so quietly that it barely heard.  
  
"But why?" Michiko blurted out, earning a glare of her grandmother which she shrunk back from.  
  
"You don't have to answer that, child. It was rather rude -" another glare aimed at Michiko, "of her to ask that."  
  
"It's all right you have a right to know," blabbed Ranma, "cleaning me and feeding me like you did. It was because I failed - It's because - I just didn't want to get married."  
  
"Married?! At your age? How old are you anyway?" Michiko blurted out again, earning another glare which, she ignored.  
  
"I take it was an arranged marriage?" Akiko asked, deciding to overlook Michiko outburst.  
  
"Yeah, something like that." Ranma replied, still staring at the table top. Um... I'm sixteen. answering Michiko's question.  
  
"Your family threw you out over that? What kind of people are they?" Michiko ranted.  
  
"Michiko, please control yourself," Akiko admonished, she knew Michiko can be very enthusiastic over anything she saw as an injustice.  
  
"Yes, Grandma." she respectfully said, turning to Ranma with a slight bow, "My apologies."  
  
"No, it's all right." Ranma softly spoke, still looking at a spot on the table.  
  
I take it then, the man your parents wanted you to marry was not to your liking. Akiko stated.  
  
He was my father's training partner.  
  
How old is he? Michiko asked, Akiko sighed.  
  
His youngest daughter from his deceased wife is my age.  
  
What?! They expected you to marry someone as old as your own father?! What in the hell were they thinking?! Michiko exploded.  
  
Michiko, you will control yourself or you will be asked to leave. I will not accept that kind of behavior, especially in front of a guest. When Akiko locked those steely hazel eyes against the blazing hazel eyes of her grand daughter, Michiko wilted.  
  
After that storm had passed, all was quite at the table. Ranma, still looking at the table top hadn't moved or said anything about Michiko's outburst. Taking a deep breath, Akiko sat with her hands on the table in front of her. Studying the girl across from her.  
  
"Do you feel like talking about it? I understand if you don't." Akiko gently said.  
  
Ranma looked up for the first time since she sat down. Looking into Akiko piercing hazel eyes she felt several different things going on. In those eyes she sensed strength, she felt warmth, she knew that those eyes let her, a stranger to Akiko, know that everything would work out.  
  
"It's a long story. A long and unbelievable story." Ranma mutter, lower her glaze back to the table top.  
  
"We have plenty of time, and we're used to strange going on's here. Why there're even some magic girls that run around here in short skirts that fight and kill demons all of the time." Akiko reassured.  
  
Ranma blinked, blinked at the magic girl statement, then shrugged her shoulders.  
  
"Okay, first you have to remember I was born a boy....  
  
...then Ranma proceeded to tell the story of her life, from she curse until the present.  
  
Many hours later....  
  
"... then I lost the kettle, Herb didn't get it either - I hope he's suffering too..."  
  
Still later...  
  
"... and that's when you found me." Ranma finished with a long exhale.  
  
By this time it was well into the night, the sounds of the busy city were long muted by the night.  
  
"Wow. That's pretty unbelievable." Michiko said.  
  
"Told you. " Ranma replied, not looking up.  
  
""I mean really unbelievable."  
  
"I believed you when you told me about some magic girls running around, what's so unbelievable about what I said?" Ranma whispered, it would have been taken as a challenge if the speaker hadn't said it so meekly.  
  
"Well, we just never heard a tale quite like yours." Akiko softly added.  
  
"Feh, If you doubt it, then go visit Nerima sometime and ask around, they'll tell you." Ranma said somewhat softly, yet defensively at the same time.  
  
"We're not questioning your word dear," Akiko said, "it's just you seemed to live through enough problems for four lifetimes."  
  
"Yeah, on top of having a slave trader for a father and a homicidal manic for a mother." Michiko snorted.  
  
"Michiko!" Akiko said, not quite as softly as before.  
  
"Well what would you call a man who would sell his only child for a bowel of rice and a fish...?"  
  
"And two pickles." Ranma added, wanting the tale completed.  
  
... and what about that crap about being a men among men'? Michiko ranted on, what the hell does that mean? Most guys I know who consider themselves men among men' are nothing more than walking sperm donors.  
  
Michiko, that's enough. Akiko reprimanded, as Ranma turned alittle green from that last comment.  
  
Michiko sat there and fumed about the strange girl, no boy's, -no better make that girl's plight. Michiko was not unaware of the weird going on's in other wards, but this is the first time she came face-to-face with someone claiming to be **one** **of** the weird going on's.  
  
Akiko sighed heavily, Michiko can be so difficult at times. Tapping her fingertips on the table top, many things crossed her mind concerning Ranma, after a moment of thought she asked,  
  
Ranma, do you consider yourself a boy or a girl?  
  
Ranma, still with her eyes on the table, fidgeted in her seat. This was not a question she wanted to answer, most of all to herself. It scared her like nothing else could, most importantly how will these two people in the room react to her answer. She could lie of course, but Akiko's presence ruled that out. There was something about her that made you trust her, and lying to her would just be plain wrong. Taking a deep breath Ranma answered,  
  
You gotta understand, I was born a boy, I should live and die a boy. Ranma sighed , then continued, If your were to ask that question before I - before I was thrown, out I would have yelled at the top of my lungs, I'm a guy, dammit! and probably go out and do something really stupid to prove it.  
  
How about now?  
  
Ranma's head fell even lower,  
  
I.. I really don't know anymore. I didn't really think about it when I... I was on the streets. It didn't matter. For so long now it just didn't seem to matter. I don't really think that I'm a real girl because I was raised to be a man but, I don't think of myself as real man anymore because... well how many men get periods?  
  
I see... you say your stuck like this? Akiko reaffirmed.  
  
Ranma nodded, still looking at the table.   
  
Well then, we'll just treat you as Ranma. Neither a girl or a boy, just you. Do you understand?  
  
Ranma shook her head, that spot on the table was sure interesting.  
  
Well, what I trying to say there is more to a person than what sex you are. deciding to change the subject. Where have you been staying? Where have you been sleeping exactly?  
  
Ranma, head still down and looking at the same spot on the table, bowed her head lower.  
  
Um...There's a bridge near here I sleep under, I don't even know the name of the street. I know it crosses a river. All the good spaces are probably gone by now though, I'll probably have to find a spot in the park at this hour.  
  
Michiko eyes widen at that, she forgot about that, about Ranma living under a bridge.   
  
Why not stay here? we can - Akiko started before being cut off.  
  
No, please. Ranma said softly, lifting her head for maybe the third time during the whole conversation, You have been too kind to me as it is. I couldn't impose on you anymore - I should get my things and just go. the she added quietly I don't want to be trouble.  
  
With that Ranma went back to examining the table top.  
  
Akiko regard Ranma some more, realizing that beneath this withdrawn, shy girl was a person who still had a certain amount of pride. Akiko knew that pride can help a person succeed greatly in life, but uncontrolled it can also be a great undoing. With that thought Akiko acted,  
  
I'm not talking about charity, Ranma. I'm talking about offering you a job here with me and Michiko. We do need help around here during the dinner rush - I'm sure your working as a waitress would more than cover room and board.  
  
A... job? that ideal, that dream seemed so unreal to Ranma now.  
  
Yes and you can keep whatever tips you make. Save up some money, do things.  
  
Yeah! That's a great ideal Grandma. Michiko interjected. We get so swamped here that afterwards I have to stay up late just do homework. Ranma can even come to school with me and after that we can come back here and work. Michiko added excitably.  
  
Ranma frowned to herself, I'm a martial artist, I don't need to go to school. I don't really have the need for it.  
  
Is that you - or your father talking? Akiko questioned, before Ranma could think of a response, And outside of protecting yourself, how far has your martial arts gotten you?  
  
Ranma looked up from the table for the forth time and her mouth doing a good imitation of a fish out of water, gasping.   
  
I see... Akiko stated dryly.  
  
Ranma slummed further into her chair.  
  
It was true, outside of protecting herself from the perverts on the street or the perverts in business suits, her martial arts hasn't really done anything for her. Looking back, martial arts was probably to root of many of her problems (along with her father's actions), or so it seem to her at that moment. Can her whole life's problems be caused by the very thing, the very last thing she truly felt she had left in her life? It was a disturbing and disquieting thought, that left her with a vague feeling of being betrayed.  
  
After a moment of silence.  
  
I'm sorry. Ranma said for the umpteenth time that evening.  
  
Nothing to be sorry for sweetie. You just have to realize depending on one thing to get by in life is foolish.  
  
Another moment of silence.  
  
"How can I attend school?" Ranma asked, "I was not that great of a student, I can't even get my records and-"  
  
"Let me worry about that, dear" Akiko interrupted with an upheld hand, "You'll find if you live in one place long enough, you have people to call upon to help with little things like this."  
  
"I don't know what to say" Ranma said quietly.  
  
"Try thank you, dear."  
  
"Oh! I'm sorry." Ranma said looking up wide eyed, then bowed, with her face almost touching the top of the table, "Thank you.'  
  
"You're welcome dear. Looking at a clock on the wall, Oh, just look at the time. We had better get to bed. Come along I'll show you where you'll be sleeping. Akiko gently said.   
  
Then she silently sighed, wishing that Ranma would stop apologizing every-time she or someone said something.  
  
********************  
  
Following Akiko and Michiko out of the dinning and back up the stairs. Ranma climbed up to a much smaller second floor where the living quarters were. Upon reaching the top she noticed a flight of stairs that would have lead to a third floor was in place but the top where it would enter the next floor was blocked off. A closet space was set underneath where the stairs went up, Akiko paused and opened the door and took out a futon, a thin pillow and a blanket and passed them off to Michiko, Ranma's hands being full with her pack.   
  
Akiko then lead around the stairwell to where there was an inset area with a door on the left-hand side of it, the wooden floor was cover by a small throw rug. Here, she and Michiko removed there shoes and placed them on the rug, Ranma followed their example.  
  
Akiko explained off handily while she was removing her shoes,  
  
"The family has owned this building for years, so we rented the top three floors and part of this one to the clothing store next door when they expanded. Perhaps when you get a bit of money saved up you can replace - some of your more worn garments."  
  
Walking down the narrow hall Akiko continued to give Ranma the layout of the second floor,  
  
"This door, she said while waving at the door next to where they left their shoes, is to the storage room for the restaurant, we keep extra tables and chairs and other goods in case they are ever needed. Across from that is the water closet, and next to that is, as you know, the bathing room."  
  
Ranma mentally took note of her surroundings.  
  
"Across from the that," Akiko continued "is Michiko room." Ranma noted the sticker laden door, "and next to hers in my room."  
  
Going all the way to the end of the hall, across from Akiko's room, was an open area that apparently serve as a living room. The interior had a low table, TV and book shelves filled with books, manga, and other magazines. The far wall, near the corner of the room was a window with the bamboo blinds drawn, along the same wall near the opposite corner was another blind covered window, but atop of that one was an air conditioning unit.  
  
"Here is where you'll be sleeping, dear. It may not be much, but I'm sure you'll find it comfortable."  
  
Michiko moved the table off to the side and undid the strap on the futon, unrolling it across the floor. Piling the blanket and pillow on top the the futon she turned to Ranma and gave her goodnights. She then departed for her room.  
  
Akiko placed a hand on Ranma's shoulder, Ranma involuntarily flinched and mutter an apology under her breath.   
  
"It's quite alright, child. You have been through enough, but you're safe here. Have a pleasant night."  
  
With that Ranma was alone, but not alone. She unfurled the blanket and changed out of the barrowed dress and into a barrowed night shirt. Laying out on the futon, [So soft] she thought she rolled to her side, keeping her pack near her as was her habit - she drifted off to sleep.  
  
**************  
  
She was spinning, spinning, spinning, around and around.   
  
She was being held by something - no - someone as swaying was added to her spinning. There was no fear here, only a feeling of gaiety, she felt herself laugh - It's been so long! When was last time she danced like this - it seemed like ages. Her partner lifted his hand and she walked through a spin, all the while keeping the spin from when they were joined, a spin within a spin. They rejoined and swayed and spun as one. Her heart soared.  
  
She laughed some more. Her laughter sounding like bells to her ears.  
  
Her faceless partner wearied. Another was waiting, this time a faceless girl with long ponytails - she didn't mind. The two girls joined in a dancers hold as Ranma took the lead, and continued the dance with her new partner. They continued to spin and dance across a vast featureless floor - she laugh some more. Her partner laughed with her. Two musical bells echoing in the dance.  
  
And the music, no the feeling of music reverberated in her soul, she was so happy!  
  
I wish Serenity would hold these balls more often.  
  
"Ranma"  
  
She look at her partner. The faceless girl kept dancing with her.  
  
"Ranma"  
  
Ranma was confused, her partner hadn't said anything... then who?  
  
"Ranma"  
  
Then like an earthquake, her world shook.  
  
*********************  
  
"Ranma" Michiko said as she gently shook the sleeping girl.  
  
Ranma's eyes cracked open and then her whole body seem to disappeared under Michiko hand startling her. When Michiko regained her wits, she looked up to see Ranma standing in a defensive position.  
  
"Ah... are you alright?" Michiko ventured.  
  
Ranma quickly regained her senses and dropped her guarded stance.   
  
"Sorry about that. You sca - scared me."  
  
"It's okay, breakfast is going to be ready soon. Why don't you get clean up - I'll meet you down stairs." Michiko said cheerfully  
  
"Ah... okay. I'll see you downstairs." she replied in a tiny voice.  
  
Michiko left for the stairs while Ranma folded the blanket she was using and proceeded to roll up and tie the futon. She then redressed into the dress she wore yesterday.  
  
[What the hell kind of dream was that?] she pondered while doing her task, [I never danced, at least not like that. And who in the hell is Serenity?] she shrugged, [Maybe living on the streets has messed me up more than I thought.]  
  
With a shake of her head Ranma dismissed the dream and placed her sleeping items in the far corner of the room, near the window behind the book case. Lifting the bamboo blind, she took a peek at what the day would look like. It was very early. She couldn't see the sky from her vantage point but she could tell it was early, all she saw was the back of the buildings across the way in the alley and the roof of the first floor with it's many pipes, vents and chimneys sticking through. [The second floor isn't as deep as the first.] she thought.  
  
Some birds shooting by the window distracted her as one landed on the roof in front of the window that she was looking out of, the bird the proceeded strut around and peck at seemly random areas on the graveled roof. The big black bird moved it's head in a jerky way as it looked around before taking finally taking flight again. Ranma watched it go, then with a sigh, turn to clean up for the day.  
  
Overall, it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day out side.  
  
Trotting down the hall to the bathing room, she knocked carefully on the door before entering, using the sink below the selves she washed her hands and face, then using a conveniently place towel, dried off.  
  
The running water trigger something in her. [Great. Now I gotta use the toilet.]  
  
Exiting the bathing room, she reentered the hall and knocked gently on adjacent door and waited. Hearing no response she carefully opened the door and peek in. It was empty. Entering the water-closet, she idly noted that it was a Japanese style toilet, not the western type she had been use to seeing and using in many of the public restrooms. Didn't make any real difference to her, it was a simple detail that she noted.  
  
After she was through, she headed down the stairs.  
  
******************  
After eating breakfast.  
  
Michiko, at Akiko's request, went and cleared the table and took the dishes to the back into the kitchen.  
  
"Now that you will be staying with us," Akiko began in a businesslike way, "we need to talk about what kind of experience you have? Have you ever worked as a waitress before?"  
  
"Yes ma'am," Ranma nodded as she replied "remember last night when I told you about the old ghoul who locked me in my curse form with the c-cats tongue pressure point?"   
  
Akiko nodded, she vaguely remembered, Ranma told so many tales last night that is was hard to remember all the details of all of them.   
  
Ranma continued,  
  
"I worked as a waitress there to try to get my cure, the cure for the c-cats tongue. I had lots of experience waiting tables and with the old ghoul around she made sure I learned, eh, I also managed to get alot of speed training there, too." the last said with alittle touch of pride.  
  
Akiko raised a eyebrow, but decided not to ask.  
  
"What about kitchen work, any experience there?" Akiko inquired in a businesses-like way.  
  
"Yes ma'am, I did lots of cooking on the road, and some back at", pause, "where we settled for awhile."  
  
"Excellent, Ranma, you seem to have everything we want for help around here. You and Michiko will share the same shift. It starts as soon as you both are home from school and ends when clean up is done. Would that be alright with you?"  
  
Ranma looked and Akiko for a second, for what felt like a long second, before she looked down at the table top and answer,  
  
"Yes ma'am," Ranma bowed, "that would be fine. I'm sorry if I seem rude, it's just that," sigh "you have been so generous to me, a complete stranger to you. I'm not use to being treated so.. so... nice."  
  
"That's quite alright, sweetie" Akiko said, dropping her 'business voice', "Since there is no school today why don't you wander around the building and get use to where everything is. Michiko can show you around the area some, once she finishes her homework."  
  
"Do I get to work lunch on weekends?" Ranma asked.  
  
"No dear, I hired a some of the college girls to help out during lunch. They take night courses up the way and between the four of them working part-time we have the lunch crowd pretty well covered."  
  
"Oh" Ranma said in a small voice, still looking at the table.  
  
"Ranma" Akiko prodded gently.  
  
"Yes ma'am."  
  
"Please," Akiko said even more gently, "look at me when we talk. I won't bite."  
  
Ranma slowly raised her head, meeting Akiko eyes with hers. She felt uncomfortable and vulnerable.  
  
"I'm sorry." Ranma whispered.  
  
"And please," Akiko said gently and yet with a firm undercurrent in her voice, "Stop apologizing every-time someone says something to you. You have nothing to be sorry for." Akiko eyes were almost pleading.  
  
Ranma swallowed hard.  
  
"I'm sor- I mean yes ma'am."  
  
"And you can call me Granny, all my friends do."  
  
Ranma smiled thinly at this.  
  
"Yes, Granny."  
  
******************  
  
Akiko look at Ranma.  
  
Before you do anything though, we should work on getting you presentable.  
  
Ranma looked down at the dress she was wearing, then looked up with a puzzled look.  
  
No dear, the dress is fine, but we have to do something about your hair. You sit right there while I get the scissors. she then bustled off to retrieved the said item.  
  
Ranma fidgeted, it wasn't like she had never gotten a hair cut before. It was just that it had been so long that it seemed more like a novelty, that she was the only word she could think to describe it.  
  
Soon Akiko return and preceded to work on Ranma's hair.  
  
********************  
  
Looking at herself in the hand mirror Ranma had to admit, she looked much better and somehow, that made her feel better in a way she couldn't put her finger on. Her hair was still longer than before, shoulder length, but that didn't really bother her.  
  
Michiko appeared as Akiko finished up.  
  
Grandma, can I take Ranma around the neighborhood? You know show her around? she asked coyly.  
  
Have you finished your homework? Akiko replied while working the last to the knots out of Ranma's newly trimmed locks.  
  
"I thought I would take Ranma out now before it got to crowded." Michiko said with pleading eyes.  
  
Akiko relented, "Alright dear, but you had best be back before 1 o'clock to get cracking on your homework", she said the last somewhat sternly in a gentle sort of way, and before you go out young lady, this time addressing the still seated Ranma, you need to put on a bra.  
  
A - a- a bra? Ranma stuttered out.  
  
Yes, of course. You may have once had a mans body, but you need to learn how to take care of your female one now don't you?  
  
Ranma was feeling a might uneasy right now, but nodded.  
  
Good, now you're - very well developed, but I think I can find something. and with that, she did.  
  
********************  
  
... and remember, no later than 1 o'clock. Akiko called from the dinning room.  
  
"Yes Grandma." Michiko chimed, then grabbed Ranma by the hand, "C'mon Ranma, I'll show you around the neighborhood."  
  
As the girls headed for the door, Akiko thought about the problem of Ranma. How to get her into school without providing any records on her will prove difficult. She pondered this, before smiling.   
  
[Yes! She would be the type who would help out in something like this.]   
  
She had met her about three years ago and had kept in contact with her off and on through the years. Such a nice young lady. Happens to work at the school where her grand daughter goes and kept her informed when Michiko behavior gets alittle too much for the teachers to handle, before any official reprimand, of course.  
  
[Yes, after hearing what Ranma's been through, I'm sure she would definitely want to help her out.]  
  
Going upstairs and shucking her shoes her entered her room and dug through a drawer in a small burro. After rummaging around a bit she triumphantly held a scrap of paper. Donning her shoes she went through the main dinning room to the kitchen where the phone was located.  
  
Dialing the number she heard it ring three times, on the forth the party she hoped to reach answer.  
  
Hello the voice on the other end answered.  
  
"Hello, Setsuna, It's Akiko. I hate to bother you at home and on a Sunday morning like this, but a problem has come up and...."  
  
**********************  
  
Michiko unlatched the door and let Ranma to the sidewalk, Ranma then waited until Michiko re-locked it behind her. Turning to take in her surroundings the sun hit Ranma in the eyes, blinding her momentarily. She had to avert her eyes and clear them.   
  
When they cleared, Ranma got a good look around her.  
  
This was the first time Ranma seen the front of the building that she would now call home. It was taller than she imagined, five floors, and above the entryway was a garnish sign in english with the Japanese words underneath. "Yoshi Cafe' American" . Looking about the neighborhood, Ranma noted that the streets were narrower than the ones in Nermina and the sidewalks were abit wider. An empty bike rack spanned the area just short of where the front door of the restaurant was and almost to the doors to the clothing store next door which was named "Team Leader Clothes and Fashions".   
  
The front of the clothing store was a riot of colorful banners, poster-board with handmade scrawlings and professional looking signs. Each proclaiming things along the lines of: "Clothing New and Used", "Latest Styles - Now Here" and "Clothing for that Retro You". It was huge. It looked like the kind of place young people would go to shop because it was cool to shop there, and cheap to boot. Other people would shop there just because it was cheap. Ranma's eyes could trace where the building housing the clothing store cross over into the building that housed the restaurant was. It did take the top three floor plus about half of the second, where she now resided. The Yoshi family must be doing very well, renting the unused parts of their building to their neighbors.  
  
[... depending on one thing to get by in life is foolish.] Ranma thought to herself as she remembered the words of Akiko from the night before.  
  
The other side of the restaurant, the building looked like a multi layer cake, each floor seemed to have its own shop that decorated the exterior faces in its own individual way. A bike shop occupied the ground floor, a shoe store on the second, the third had no sign-age so maybe it was unused or maybe people lived there. The forth had a video rentals and the top floor had electronics new and used. This building too had a long bike rack in front which did have a few bikes placed here and there.  
  
The whole neighborhood followed the same pattern.  
  
It was still early so the sidewalks were uncrowded, Michiko having successfully put her homework off to later, began to show Ranma around.  
  
*****************  
  
Walking slightly behind Michiko, Ranma was taking it all in. She had been to shopping districts before, but she would usually go in with a purpose, find what she need and then get the hell out. She never liked the crowds and since living like she had been, she liked them even less. Too many perverts hide in crowds.  
  
Turning into a wider street, Michiko started pointing out all of the landmarks.   
  
"Over there is the ice cream shop where I hang with my friends sometimes and down the road a ways is the the grocery store grandma and I do are shopping. They have some of the best frozen pork buns you can buy. The library is now the next block over, I'll show you that later. There is a temple or shrine nearby too, if you are in to that kinda thing...."  
  
Michiko went on describing in detail where everything was and how to get here or there. Where find the best shopping and who had the best deals, where the bus stops were and other points of interests.  
  
Now walking side by side down the wide sidewalk, Ranma took it all in with great interest. Ranma for her part just listened and and only spoke to ask questions to clarify where something was. Michiko pointed out the school where she went and hopefully, Ranma would soon be going. From their vantage, all that was seen was the clock tower that seems to be prevalent in every high school Ranma has seen.  
  
****************  
  
Walking along the street that bordered a river Ranma felt an uneasy feel creep into her gut, and crawl up to her heart. Michiko who was talking about the various personel goings-on's in the area , noticed something was amiss with Ranma when she started to slow down and stopped responding to her questions. Michiko was growing concerned. Finally halting and turning to her new friend she gently reached for her,  
  
"Ranma, what's the matter - you seem troubled all the sudden." Michiko asked.  
  
"Ah... It's nothing." Ranma said shyly looking down at the ground as she tried not to flinch as Michiko touched her shoulder.  
  
"C'mon Ranma, you can tell me. We've been talking most of the time we were out, having a good time. Now you suddenly close up on me. What's the problem?" Michiko prodded, though not as gently as Akiko would've.  
  
"That bridge." Ranma replied finally, pointing to the structure in the near distant, "That bridge, was my home for I don't know how long." looking up at Michiko, "It seems so weird seeing it like this, that's all. I mean it's only been one night, but still-" Ranma trailed off.  
  
Seeing that her new friend was getting depressed, Michiko did the only thing she could think of, something that helped her when she was depressed.   
  
"C'mon Ranma. Let's get some ice cream, my treat to celebrate you starting work tomorrow."  
  
Ranma was about to object, but the blazing smile that Michiko greeted her with when she looked up brook no argument. Besides ice cream sounded good too.  
  
*****************  
  
Ranma and Michiko was on their return walk, side-by-side with Ranma on the inside, next to the buildings. Suddenly out of the arcade they were about to pass came a blur that rushed out and collided with Ranma. As both bodies headed for the ground, Ranma caught herself and her unknown assailant. Instinctively realizing this was not an attack, Ranma pulled the other person close, and by spinning around on their joined axis and managed to right herself as well as the person she was clinging to. The momentum of the spin set them up for another three-quarter spin before Ranma was able to compensate for the inertia.  
  
The spinning had a touch of sway to it.  
  
And she remembered how she loved to dance.  
  
The blonde hair girl that crashed into Ranma was in front apologizing and bowing and talking in hyper-speed.  
  
"Oh,I'msosorry!Canyoupleaseforgiveme.Igottagohomerightnowormymother willgetmadatme,thenI'llbgrounded.PleaseexcusemeIhavetorunnow.Bye."  
  
The next thing Ranma knew, she was looking at a cloud of dust and the quickly retreating figure of a girl sporting long twin ponytails that flapped in the breeze as she ran. Ranma stood there wondering what the hell just happened.  
  
"Ranma, are you alright?" Michiko inquired with concern. She had seen the whole thing happen and how both girls avoided ending up on the ground was beyond her.  
  
"Yeah, I'm okay, let's get - home - before Granny gets mad for us being late." Ranma said, saying the word "home" with a certain amount of reverence while trying to ignore a tickle of memory in the back of her mind.  
  
They stepped up their pace as they walked back to the restaurant, with light banter being exchanged between them. In the back Ranma's mind however,she kept wondering back to the tickle in her mind: the memory of dancing, and loving it.  
  
************  
  
As soon as they got home Michiko hurried upstairs to do her long awaited homework. Ranma was about to follow her up when Akiko called to her.   
  
"Ranma." Akiko began, "I have some good news. I was able to get you into Juuban High. I called an acquaintance of mine that works there and she said that she could work everything out on her end."   
  
"Th-That's great." Ranma said [I think].  
  
"Good, now she said that they had some uniforms that were donated for needy students and if you definitely qualify. Get there early enough, she can help fit you with one."  
  
"I don't need a uniform."  
  
"It's required at this school, I'm sure you will like it." Akiko stated.  
  
Ranma nodded at this, not really thinking about questioning the need for a uniform.  
  
"Granny?"  
  
"Yes Ranma?"  
  
"If I get up early enough," Ranma asked quietly, "can I clear an area down here to practice my art before breakfast? I promise to put everything back where I got it when I'm finished. The art may not have gotten me far in life, but I like it - and it's all that I have left from my old life."  
  
Akiko thought about the request before answering.  
  
"Of course, sweetie. But you have to promise to clean up any mess you make and you will have to pay for anything you break."  
  
"Yes ma'am." Ranma said and she nodded in agreement.  
  
"... and also you have to promise to keep your grades up once you start school tomorrow."  
  
Ranma looked at the floor," Yes ma'am." [Darn!]  
  
Akiko placed her hand under Ranma's chin, raising her head.   
  
"It won't be so bad, dear." Akiko said while looking at Ranma in the eye, "Just think of it as motivation. Work before play." She finished with a kind smile.  
  
Looking at those eyes, Ranma couldn't help but agree. With that, Ranma ascended the stairs and explored the smaller upstairs living quarters that has been the Yoshi family home. It didn't take long. Going into the living room she had slept in the night before, she noticed that the blinds were open and afforded her a grand view of the back of the buildings across the alley that she noted earlier that morning.  
  
Sitting on the floor by the opened window, (the Yoshi's didn't have any chairs upstairs, except for those in storage) she rested her elbow on the windowsill and propped her head up with her hand. Lost in thought.  
  
Her life had changed - again. First when she was disowned, the hell of life on the streets and now when she had the good fortune to meet the Yoshi's. She tried to think back, just to the other day, around this time and what she might have been doing, and came up with nothing.   
  
Her life on the streets were not even worth remembering, but she knew she would ever forget it. Somethings you couldn't forget, others you hoped to. Training for as long as she felt like it had been nice, the foraging for food was unpleasant but necessary and some of the men...  
  
... Ranma shudder at the memory of that. She actually thought about doing - "that" - with men, for money to live on. Even if she didn't actually do , that one moment of weakness in her mind still shamed her.  
  
If the dumpster that she had usually dug through for dinner wasn't unexpectedly locked, and if it weren't for that damn cat that prevented her from going to her other sources, she might have never venture down this particular alley, to the dumpster of the only restaurant on this part of the block. Who knows what would have eventually happened to her?  
  
Ranma sighed, and shifted her position resting on her crossed arms upon the sill. Staring out at nothing and thinking about how her life has changed in a few short hours.  
  
And about dancing.  
  
And how she ended up here.  
  
It had to be fate.   
  
[Maybe somebody up there finally likes me.], she thought before she rose to find something to do.  
  
_________________________________  
  
Authors ending whine:  
  
Here it is, a bran new chapter. I am trying to get them alittle more refined before I post them, but this is all still pretty new to me. Sometimes I think of something like Oh yeah, I forgot to put this in or crap, I could have written that part better.  
  
I hope I get better in writing in general as time goes on and having less of what happened to the last chapter (two beta's posted). My story line outline is up too a theoretical chapter 9, but I have no ideal how the actual chapters will break down. You know how in a outline you have a number 1 and item A), B), C) etc. under it? Well this chapter only had two items under it and it took awhile to cover all of the bases on it.  
  
The next chapter has 7 main items and 10 minor sub items. Maybe I'll break that into two chapters, or try to edit it down some.  
  
I'm going to be playing fast and loose with the Sailor Moon universe, but hope to keep everyone in some resemblance of in-character.  
  
Man this isn't easy - but so far it's been fun.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  



	4. Juuba part 2

rev. 2 - very minor edits  
  
Well here I go again.   
  
The Juuban high uniforms were taken from a Sailor Moon sketch book that my daughter has. She has promised me that is the correct uniform, if she's wrong she swears to wash and wax the cars all summer.  
  
(Note: since I first wrote that many people have sent me jpegs of the uniform, and there are variations. It is generally as describe in the story, except some pics I received have a blue bow in front or a blue kerchief that goes under the collar. Just for those who are interested, the Sailor Moon Art book that the original description was based on was the one that Usagi was wearing and it did have a red bow. I'll pick the blue bow for this story.)   
  
Be it as it may, if anyone spots something that's waaay out of character with the Sailor Moon cast- please let me know.  
  
With that in mind I would like to thank everybody who has took the time to send in a review .   
  
Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
I do not own anything in this story, which means I am little owned.  
  
________________________________  
  
Juuban - part 2  
  
********************  
  
Ranma was preparing to do something she loved more than almost anything: training.   
  
She looked out across the city from her high vantage point, while waiting for the others to arrive. Watching the people far below attend to their daily lives, she wondered idly what it would be like to be one of them, among the mass of humanity that surrounded her. She sighed, she was happy but sometimes things could be a such a drag. She loved the training, but sometimes she'd hope to sneak away and explore the haunts kids her age flocked to, just to see or experience it for a short time.   
  
She let out another sigh just as the door behind her opened.  
  
A faceless man entered followed by a faceless girl. Ranma knew her from before, and bowed low as the faceless girl addressed her casually, her voice was like bells but the words were unhearable. The faceless man in turn bowed to Ranma and handed her a folder with some papers in it.  
  
Opening the folder, she read the text-less pages and looked up at her companions with a raised eyebrow. This was not just a training session, but a test of one of her lower high-ranged attacks. She smiled, this was going to be fun.  
  
Taking not even a second to touch her soul,or in this case, a crystal pictured in her minds eye that represented her soul, she then touched the magic within and something else - but what that was wasn't quite clear. She felt the explosion of power, the swirling magic's that was infused within her body and soul then stood there before her - friends - yes, friends, and in a moment of mirth giggled at something the faceless man said, the faceless girl also joined in.  
  
The faceless man then handed Ranma a device shaped like a bracelet that would record the test, she absently mindedly and with much practice, clamped it onto her left wrist, just forward of where her bracers came to. The faceless girl who wore ponytails talked a little more to Ranma with her bell like voice, Ranma nodded to whatever she was saying before turning and stepping toward the edge of the balcony.  
  
Ranma then stepped over the rail.  
  
She didn't fall.  
  
Rising higher and higher, she felt and rode on the fabric of, of, whatever, and with her sword in her hand; (where did that come from) and a thought - cut something, the air?, making something in her path. No! making a path. The next thing she knew she was in a big empty, no not empty, there was something else here. Something big. Turning. A sun! But not not our sun.   
  
She found herself surrounded by the deadly void of space... but still breathing?  
  
She extended a hand and felt, actually felt the four planets that circled this star. She felt no life, digging deeper she found that there was never life here and never would be. She smiled. Perfect.  
  
Extending both hands, she felt - that something again, like fabric, but intangible. She can feel it and manipulate it and pull and push the- magic?, no, magic and power through it. She could pull power from it too. Rolling the fabric of space/time? And feeling the foreign sun before her, she readied her attack.  
  
Igniting the endless points? Embedded in the fabric she spun a web of magic and power. The sun of this ever dead alien solar system exploded outward suddenly and with such force that it looked like she barely had time to erect a .. warp bubble? to protect her from the fruits of her power.  
  
All that was left of the star and four planets was expanding clouds of gases.  
  
All in all a successful test.  
  
She wondered what it would be like to go all out - but that would be way to dangerous, even out here, thousands of - light years? - from home.  
  
Taking her sword, she literally cut for home.  
  
*************************  
  
Ranma woke with a start.  
  
[WHAT IN THE HELL WAS THAT?] shaking her head to clear it, [That's it. No more wasabi ice cream before bed.] remembering the treat she had the night before.  
  
Looking at the illuminated face of the living room clock on the wall from her spot on the futon, she was a least pleased to find she was up early enough to do some training. She spent part on last night planning on what she needed to concentrate on and was eager to implement it.   
  
And without further ado, she did.  
  
********************  
  
It was early morning, before the dawn.  
  
When she arrived downstairs it was still dark, and the light switch was located across the room. On a whim, she decided to try something while crossing over to it. Holding her arms out before her like she was holding someone, she hesitantly at first spun, and then added a touch of sway into it as she danced her way more gracefully than she though possible around the tables to her destination. She stopped half way to the light switch, and pondered. This was not like a dream, it was more like a half forgotten memory. How could she remember something she didn't do? She tried to ignore it, but it kept coming back to nag her. The tickling sensation she had been feeling in the back of her mind increased every time she thought about it. Shaking her head she finished crossing over to the light switch, this time by simply walking over to it and flipped it.  
  
It was time to get to work.  
  
********************  
  
Spin, kick, parry, jab  
  
Ranma's aggressive kata flowed through the room as she gracefully and powerfully worked through some of the high end exercises. She concentrated on her "close combat" forms since the ceiling ruled out any of the aerobatic styles that had become her signature, and for which, she has since come to realized, depended upon too much in all of her fights. Using the opportunity, she decided to take the time to polish her confined space maneuvers. She didn't want to limited herself to just one style, even if it was one she preferred.   
  
She thought, [... not going to depend on one thing in my life, or my art.]   
  
Anything Goes, ideally is a blend, a mixture of different styles that flow together seamlessly and made you unpredictable to your opponent. However, Ranma found the better you got and the more styles you infused and the more you practice you start developing a style all your own based on all the other styles you have learned. If you get really good enough she found, you get predicable, favoring moves and styles that you like over others that maybe better in the circumstances that you are in, but harder to do or having a personal dislike for doing them. Ranma discovered that fact last night, when she was thinking of different katas and techniques to practice indoors. When the realization hit her, that lately she had been basing most of her forms and exercises on a select few dozen moves and techniques that she liked, and not the whole of her knowledge in the combat arts. She began to realize how vulnerable she really could be.  
  
Maybe that's why the little pervert and the old ghoul were so good, they practiced everything and not just what they liked.   
  
So early this morning before anyone else awoke. she climbed down stairs, turned on the lights and rearranged the tables in the dinning room of the restaurant, for some exercise. She decided that instead of using a combination of her favorite few attacks, she deliberately chose forms and parts of the art she disliked. Some of those parts she disliked with a passion.  
  
This, of course meant no arial stunts, no ki attacks and no of anything she liked to use in her fights.  
  
It sucked.  
  
Technically she was amazingly good if not great, but she felt it was more of a chore now than the art she had come to love. It didn't feel fulfilling.  
  
[Gotta take the good with the bad] thought Ranma, [If I can pull this off, I'll find an open space somewhere and go all out. As a treat.]  
  
twist, kick, jab, jab, jab, spin  
  
Ranma smiled, [... I'll think about it as motivation, work before play.]  
  
*******************  
  
Akiko woke up at her usual time, and dutifully tended to herself via way of her morning routine. Dressed, she descended the stairs to the dinning room and was mesmerized by the performance that was taking place there. She stood at the foot of the stairway and watched as Ranma danced, dodged and flowed close to the ground - so close that to the ground that Akiko wondered if Ranma compressed herself to hardly appear to have any height at all. Ranma at that point flowed up from the ground and spun. Legs and arms flashed out from her spinning form almost too fast to see. With a flourish Ranma finished, breathing steadily and with a light sheen of sweat covering her body.  
  
"Good morning, that looked like quite a workout." Akiko said after finding her voice.  
  
"Good morning," Ranma nodded, "yeah, trying some new things. Got sloppy a few times, but I'll get it right."  
  
"Good for you." Akiko said with a warm smile on her face, "Why don't you straighten up down here, then wake Michiko and bathe. By the time you two get down, I'll have breakfast ready."  
  
"Yes, Granny" Ranma said with some cheer in her voice. She always felt better after a workout, even one that she didn't particularly feel good doing, it was the physical exercise, the exertion that did it.   
  
Quickly reassembling the dinning room (chestnut speed room rearranging), Ranma then climbed the stairs. Having no shoes to remove, for her feet were already bare, she went directly to the stickered covered door and rapped lightly. Hearing a soft groan from the other side, she cracked the door open an inch and peered inside. The morning sun was on its way to rising so any light from the outside world that worked its way around the drawn blinds was not enough for Ranma to see clearly by, all she saw was an outline of a lump on the floor that emitted a groan.  
  
"Just five more minutes grandma," a sleepy voice muttered, "just five more minutes.", this time more softly .  
  
Ranma considered her options. Though she contemplated of a bucket of water and being thrown out the window, she didn't really like being awakened that way and thought Michiko wouldn't either. In the end she rejected both tactics. She just settled instead for something more mundane, but new to her: gently shaking Michiko on the shoulder.  
  
"Michiko."  
  
groan  
  
"Michiko" Ranma repeated, this time putting alittle bit more effort behind the shaking part.  
  
"W...what?" Michiko's eyes fluttered open, "Oh, hi Ranma. What time its it?"  
  
"Around six," Ranma answered, "Granny asked me to get you up. I need a bath, so I'll see you downstairs."  
  
With that Ranma left Michiko. By the time Ranma made the door, Michiko managed to sit up in her futon, rubbing her eyes with one hand. Ranma for her part managed to get a somewhat vague look at the interior of Michiko's room now that her eyes adjusted somewhat to the dim light. Her only mental comment to herself was [How many posters does she have?]  
  
After retrieving some clothes from her pack, clean ones, that she considered were in fairly decent shape, she headed for the bathroom. Upon entering Ranma stripped out of her workout clothes and folded them, then placed them on one of the shelves. Taking a stool, she rinsed and lathered herself up - that was when Michiko walked in.  
  
Ranma stared with a mixture of shock, fear and well - more fear, as Michiko removed her night clothes and walked over and sat beside Ranma on the remaining stool.   
  
"Did you work out this morning?" Michiko asked offhandedly.  
  
Ranma nervously shook her head. [I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die,...]  
  
"Ranma -are your alright?" Michiko asked, becoming aware of her bathing partners stone-like countance.  
  
"I.. I... I...I'm a guy, remember?" Ranma managed to get out.  
  
"You also said you weren't sure anymore. Besides, I have nothing that you don't have - well maybe you have more than me, but we're all girls here now."  
  
Ranma blushed at the reference to her 'assets', [Jezz the girl who drowned in that spring would have to be stacked.] she thought, choosing to not remember at the moment that was not quite how the springs worked.   
  
The springs turn people and animals physically, into whatever drowned there last, as if the person or animal that fell in were born as the same species, or in this case, sex of what had drowned there. So Gemna came out as he would be if he was born a panda, Ryoga as if he were born a pig and Ranma if he was born a girl. For some reason Ranma always felt a little uneasy thinking about it that way, even if it was the reality of the situation.  
  
"Here, can you get my back?" Michiko asked while turning away from Ranma. Ranma hesitated, but complied. These people have been so nice to her, so nice she didn't want to do anything that would look like she was remotely rejecting them. With butterflies in her stomach and steeling her slightly shaking hands, Ranma proceeded to wash Michiko's back. When she was through Michiko took the wash rag from Ranma's hand and motioned her to turn around; she then returned the favor.  
  
Drying off, Michiko reminded Ranma that they needed to get to school early, before returning to her room to dress. Ranma dressed in the bathroom, donning her trademark red silk shirt and pants then headed down stairs.  
  
Ranma breathed in the smell of breakfast that wafted through the open kitchen door and invaded the dinning room. [Man! That smells good, I wonder what it is?]  
  
"Breakfast is ready, is Michiko with you?" Akiko inquired.  
  
"She should be down in a minute, she's getting dressed."  
  
**************************  
  
Dawn. Someplace nearby.  
  
A small twinkle of light appeared mid-air in front of an all-night convenience store, in the space between the vending machine and a newspaper rack, widening, it deposited with a "splort" a flesh-colored glob that quickly bounded into a nearby alley. It was confused, all the briefings and reviewing of past intelligence should have prepared it. But this was nothing like any of the information that was given to it before leaving.  
  
Scanning in a multi-channel, it detected a sizable living being near is location. Flowing toward it, it spied a creature that was a quadra-ped, had a layer of gray fur and had trianglar ears atop its head.   
  
It scanned its internal memory before going higher thru hyper-space uplink to call up the information needed. It hated to do that so soon after arriving but there was only so much information that could be stored in its biomass. Cat was the answer that came back along with other supplemental data. The glop then slowly reformed its mass into the approximate likeness of the cat it had scanned. Since the information stated that this particular type of cat was not intelligent and not part of the Moon Kingdom advisors,there would be no reason to depose of it.  
  
Realizing that the situation was not what they were expecting it decided to reject the preparatory ground work for its mission and improvise. Trotting off deeper into the alley, it scanned the area for any of the Lunar Guards or Techo-mages. It found none. This was definitely not what was expected. If the Moon Kingdom was no more then it would greatly simplify things - but they had to be sure. Thus the reason for this reconisance.   
  
Reopening the hyper-space uplink it requested a flyer. Locking on to the pseudo-cat, another twinkle of light appeared and this time deposited a slightly larger glop that made a slightly larger "splort". The pseudo-cat approached the glop and transfered what little data it had collected.   
  
During this, the multi-channel scan alerted that another life form was approaching, slightly smaller in mass that the earlier cat. The just arrived larger glop flowed toward it and visually analyzed the new intruder. It was a small black pig with a piece of colored cloth secured around its neck - apparently dragging a large pack that was several times the pigs mass.  
  
The larger glop slowly assumed the shape of the pig, though it was larger than the original. The black pig, upon seeing this, its eyes got real big before it took off and disappeared. It was of no consequence, though it was curious how the small animal disappeared from the current scanning range of ten miles in mere seconds. The pseudo-pig took a few minutes to prepare and then took flight, climbing higher and higher until it was a dot in the morning sky before vanishing.  
  
No, this definately was not what was expected, the pseudo-cat thought, if the Moon Kingdom did fall then they would have to try to bring it back. Even if it meant killing everything on this world and starting over.  
  
**********************  
  
Upon entering the building that was Juuban High, Michiko escorted Ranma to the office where Akiko's friend worked. Opening the marked door Michiko let Ranma enter first then followed. The office was your typical high school office outfitted with a long counter, behind which were desks and chairs manned by nondescript middle-age women, Ranma could tell none of them were fighters, except for one. One desk was occupied by a women that couldn't be any older than Kasumi. She was dressed smartly and semi-professionally and had dark hair with green highlights that worked well with her deep red eyes, there was something else about her too.Something that tickled the back of Ranma's mind. Ranma then wondered if she was related to the Amazons.  
  
While Ranma was checking out the environment of the office and the possible fighting skills of its occupants, Michiko had inquired about her grandmother's friend to one of the ladies at the front counter.   
  
"Miss Meioh, you have a new student." The woman called over to the green haired women that Ranma was examining moments before.  
  
"Miss Meioh here is in charge or our attendance, registration, and the student records," the women at the counter informed Ranma and Michiko. "She'll help you get started."  
  
The red eyed woman rose from her desk and cross over to Ranma and Michiko, extending a hand to Ranma she spoke. "You must be Ranma, Akiko told me all about you yesterday."  
  
"All about me?" Ranma squeaked out, feeling nervous.  
  
"Oh yes, everything she said while smiling reassuringly. Miss Yonai, would you please come with us and help your friend find a school uniform after we fill out some paperwork? I think there maybe even some book bags and gym uniforms mixed in there."  
  
"Yes ma'am." Michiko replied.  
  
Following Meioh, Ranma analyzed her moves. She was a fighter, but it was hard to rate her. She was either very good, or very good at masking how good she was. Ranma mentally blinked at that thought, then shook her head.  
  
"Something wrong Miss Ranma?" Meioh asked.  
  
"Ah... No, everythings fine. Um... Do I really have to wear a uniform?" stressing the word "really".  
  
"I'm afraid so, it is the rules of this school. Don't worry, they're not that bad looking," indicating what Michiko was wearing, "and much better than what you have on." indicating what Ranma was wearing with a wave of her hand.  
  
Ranma would have been offended by that comment if it were not for the fact that Miss Meioh was right. Though what she had on was the best she had, it left little doubt that it had seen better days.  
  
Miss Meioh explained to Ranma, how she acquired records and altered them to fit her current condition. She also suggested some things as tutoring if couldn't bring her grades up and other academic matters. It all kind of made sense to Ranma who nodded through most of the conversation before signing her name on a few forms.  
  
After about fifteen minutes of paperwork and another fifteen rummaging through stacks of donated uniforms and school supplies **and** still another fifteen minutes getting dress in the girls restroom. Ranma was ready for her first day at Juuban High.  
  
**************************  
  
Ranma soon found herself at the front of a very non-descript classroom. [Why does every school look the same?] she mused.  
  
"Class, we have a new student starting today. Miss Ranma would you please introduce yourself?"  
  
Ranma felt very exposed standing in front of a room full of people she didn't know and being the center of attention. It didn't help that she was wearing a uniform. The knee length blue skirt wasn't as much of a problem, nor was the white short sleeve shirt with the blue collar sporting red trim or the uwabaki that graced her feet. But man, somehow that blue bow in front has got to go. It was a small comfort that all the other girls were dressed identically, but it was a larger comfort that Michiko was in the same class.  
  
Steeling herself for the second time today she decided to get it over with, and with a formal looking bow, "Hello my name is Ranma. I am new to this ward. I am excited to be here and I am looking forward to learning with all of you." Ranma almost choked on her words.  
  
"That will do, would you please have a seat next to... Hiroshi would you please raise you hand?" a tall boy with thick glasses wearing the male version of the uniform complied with the request.   
  
Ranma made her way past Michiko, who was two desks in front of where she would be sitting, and over to the unoccupied desk and hung her book-bag on the hook built into the side of the desk for that purpose. Akiko's friend Miss Meioh was thorough. Ranma had everything she needed to start school in the worn book bag and had no excuse for being, at least materially, unprepared. With that thought she slid into the seat and readied herself for what was to come.  
  
************************  
  
The day was going surprisingly well for Ranma. Between classes when the teachers switched out, Ranma was introduced to a few of Michiko's friends. They all seemed very sympathetic to Ranma's plight. Ranma was glad that she and Michiko decided the night before to give an edited version of Ranma's life, leaving out the weirder moments and the curse. She didn't like lying, but Michiko convinced Ranma that it would be for the best. After-all, how could she prove everything that had happened to her. All that they really told them was that she was thrown out by her father because she refused to marry a man that was her father's age, on top of having a daughter from his previous wife the same age as Ranma herself. Michiko's friends as well as every other girl in the classroom were suitably outraged.  
  
First being introduced to Chiyo which was an interesting experience, if you were interested in basketball as much as she was. She was on the girls team and had the height for it. She was probably one of the tallest girls Ranma ever met, she had to be almost 5' 7"!  
  
Hitomo was an open small girl. The phrase "she has a wonderful personality" fit her to a tee. It wasn't that she was ugly or unattractive, quite the opposite, but her personality just shine through and dominated over her looks.   
  
The last of Michiko's friends Ranma was introduced to was Tamami. She was average. Average looks, average height, average hair and average weight. Hard to get to talk, having a book in front of her face all the time. Michiko assured Ranma that she was really a sweet girl, just a little shy around strangers and people she had just met.  
  
When lunch came about, being a such a nice day outside, Ranma, Michiko and her three friends decided that outside would be the place to be. Ranma chatted with Michiko and her friends as they carried their bentos and walked the halls toward the exit, Ranma having resisted the urge to leap out the window, as was her habit from her previous school. Walking and talking with her new friends in the crowded hallway, Ranma was siezed by the creepy feeling she always gets when she is being watch that crawled up her spine and nearly raised the hair of her long ponytailed hair.  
  
Trying to look casual Ranma looked around the hall, as if she were exploring a new place for the first time all the while answering questions from Michiko' friends, including Tamimi who had warmed up to Ranma. It didn't take long for Ranma to spot where the feeling was coming from. Trailing far behind Ranma's group was another group of girls, four of them.   
  
The one leading them was a tall, about as tall as Chiyo, brown haired girl that had her haired tied up in a high ponytail. She seemed to be exasperated about something. Slightly behind her was shorter girl with short dark blue hair and a calculating, studying look. She reminded Ranma, in her own way, of two someone's she would rather not think about. Behind her was a average height blond. Her long hair was tied with a rather large red bow, the rest of her hair came down past her buttocks and was like a cloak that trailed behind her as she walked. And behind her was another blond who had the weirdest hairstyle Ranma has ever seen, two ponytails with balls on top. She seem familiar somehow. Then it clicked. It was the same girl that almost bowled Ranma over yesterday while walking with Michiko.  
  
[That's probably why they're looking at me.] Ranma concluded.  
  
Ranma at that point decided to put it out of her mind as her group changed into their street shoes and finally made its way outside. Heading toward to one of the many tables that were nearby, she continued to answer questions about her life to Michiko's friends. She was hungry and anxious to eat.  
  
**************************  
There was no trace of the Moon Kingdom anywhere, but something was there, it was hard to detect, and track. It seemed that there may have survivors of whatever happened, but not enough to rebuild. Maybe the plan could be altered and bio samples from the survivors could be used to create others with built in random genetic sequencing - it could be possible. Then again there was something definately off with the readings, it wished it could locate them and have time to do a more detailed scan. The life energies were much higher than should be, but out of phase making it difficult to pin point. The energy seemed to be consistent with a project that they discovered the Moon Kingdom Techo-mages were working on just before the Last Confrontation.   
  
If it was what it suspected, these were warriors of the Moon Kingdom. And they would have to dealt with first. Permanently.  
  
******************************  
  
Ranma felt it was not too bad of a day, all things considered. No samurai wannabe's wanting to date her, no one trying to make money off her, no weird girls trying to glomp her, no violent tomboys malleting her for the smallest reasons, no "Ranma prepare to die!''s and no being called a fiend, sorcerer or pervert . The downside was that this school expected you to learn something, and with that felt it necessary to give out homework - and to Ranma it seemed like alot of it. Seeing that her last school hardly gave out any, she used that as a gauge for this amount, which would be classified as average for any Japanese high-school student. She sighed, she did promise Akiko that she would do as well as possible in school, which means - shudder - studying.  
  
Rushing home with Michiko so that they could get to work on time, Ranma noted that the same four girls that triggered her "someone-is-out-to-get-me" reflex earlier, were standing around near the gates of the school and seem to be scrutinizing her as she ran past. It made her feel a bit nervous and the tickling in the back of mind seem to increase a little, but she put it aside, favoring to concentrate on getting home on time.   
  
She had a job waiting on her.  
  
*************************  
  
"So that's her?" the tall brown haired girl said more as a comment than a question.  
  
"Yes, and Setsuna said to stay away from her." the short dark blue haired girl answered.  
  
"Well at least she was more informative than usual last night. This Ranma must really have her rattled." the blond with the red bow added in.  
  
"I'm hungry, I know! Let's stop off somewhere on the way home and get a snack." the twin ponytailed girl merrily interjected.  
  
The other three just looked at her.  
  
****************************  
  
Upon entering the restaurant, Michiko called out a loud "I'm home!" before heading up the stairs trailed by Ranma. They both shucked their shoes on the foot rug in the hall and went into Michiko's room to change. The night before they spent some time in the living room, altering one of the waitress uniforms to fit Ranma's frame.   
  
Closing the door behind her, Ranma got a good look at Michiko's room for the first time, it was much like her door. Every surface of the walls were covered with posters, instead of stickers, of idol singers. CD cases littered the floor next to a portable player and little "do-dads" cluttered the top of a small, low laying dresser. Michiko handed Ranma her uniform, then both girls disrobed, redressed, then grabbed their book bags and headed down stairs.   
  
The waitress uniforms were of a non-offensive and somewhat modest cut. The skirt came down just short of the knees and the shirt that came with it had buttons up the front that you could use to show as much or as little cleavage as you wanted. Ranma chose to show little. The white apron that covered it was devoid of frills and lace (thank god) and had sizable pockets in front for keeping the items that were needed to perform her job. All-in-all not bad.   
  
Except for one thing.   
  
Pink.   
  
The uniforms color would have to be a pale pink.   
  
Ranma had to fight the gag reflex that threatened to overtake her last night when she first saw it.  
  
Soon they were presenting themselves before Akiko.  
  
"My, you two look lovely, come dears, we are about to open. Michiko could you get the door and Ranma please come with me, I want you to meet someone." Akiko rattled off in her gentle but commanding way.   
  
Michiko nodded, and took Ranma's book bag from her and along with hers placed them on a long waitress station that was situated along the back wall. Here was where the extra glasses, silverware, pitchers of water, cups, saucers, two hot tea brewing machines and various other tools of the trade were.  
  
Also it was a good place to do homework when it was slow.  
  
Spying through the opening in the wall for passing orders between the dinning room and the kitchen Ranma spotted a man. A big man, not fat, but big. Age-wise he looked to be about in his mid-thirties, maybe older. He was working on shredding some lettuce with a machine when Akiko lead Ranma into the kitchen.  
  
"Yoshi , do you have a moment?" Akiko asked.  
  
"Sure, mom, just a sec." the man replied without removing his attention from his task, in a surprising high-pitched voice. Wiping his hands on the unpocketed apron he was wearing he looked up with the same piercing hazel eyes that Ranma had grown familiar with over the last two days and smiled.  
  
"You must be Ranma" he said in his high-pitched voice.  
  
"Ah... Yes sir." was the only thing that came to Ranma's mind as a reply.  
  
"Yoshi here is my youngest son. He lives not far from here with his wife and two children, which he neglects to bring over more often," she jabbed, "and works as the cook."  
  
"Heck, cook, maintenance man, occasional bouncer..." he added flippantly, the humor reaching his eyes.  
  
"Ah... great." was Ranma's reply.  
  
"Ranma here had some kitchen experience, she may be of some help back here if things pick up too fast." Akiko said.  
  
"That would be great." Yoshi said Then to Ranma, "But don't worry, that doesn't happen too often. I got a system back here that works real well."  
  
"You should, I taught it to you." Akiko added.  
  
"Mooom!" Yoshi said in mock embarrassment, "Not in front of the help."  
  
"Oh, you!" Akiko answered in the same mocking tone, "get back to work."  
  
"Yes ma'am." came his reply with a smile on his face that truly reached his eyes. With that he returned to his interrupted task, while Ranma and Akiko re-entered the dining area.  
  
Michiko had just unlocked the front door and was crossing to meet her grandmother and Ranma.   
  
"Now we relax until the dinner crowd gets here." Akiko stated to both Ranma and Michiko.  
  
Ranma having been "shown the ropes" and where everything was yesterday afternoon when the restaurant was closed, felt pretty much at ease. She had done this type of work before and was eager to prove herself to her hosts. She didn't really think about it as work, but as a challenge. She wanted to do it right and not be a disappointment to the Yonai's. She felt that it would be bad to let them down after they treated her - like a human being.  
  
Before too long a small, noisy gathering of people in their early to mid-twenties entered. This time it was truly time to get to work.  
  
**********************  
  
Later...  
  
Ranma was mopping the dining room at near "chestnut speed", after first placing the chairs atop the tables and reflecting on her first night of her new job. For a restaurant that is only open from about 4:30 to 7:30, it sure drew a crowd. She had been very, very busy but felt good about it too. The crowd was mostly young college-age men and women out on the town with some money and lots of time. This looked like the place where many couples started their dates. Which was a good thing, after-all no guy is going to flirt with the waitress if his date is sitting right there in front of him.  
  
The food served here was American, well as American you can find without going to a chain eatery. Hamburgers, hot-dogs and small pizzas were the mainstay. Ranma kinda doubted though that American's put dried, shredded eel in their burgers - but what did she know? She never has been to America and has heard that they eat some pretty weird stuff.  
  
Finishing the floor in the dinning room, she noted the time 8:22. She then proceeded into the kitchen to help the others clean up.  
  
Looking around the dining room for any spots she may have missed, Ranma smiled.  
  
[I think I'm going to like it here.]  
  
*****************************  
  
All the information, as little as it was so far, was collected and sent through the hyper-space uplink. However, it will be at least one more day for the flyer to reach the palace on the Moon and three days more for it to return after is has made its inspection. The inspection could take as long as one to four days. Maybe the answers could be found there.  
  
The lack of Techo-mages will factor heavily in their favor. However, this civilization the pseudo-cat found itself among, may be able to defend itself from outside threats without using such methods that the Moon Kingdom employed. It had to find out.  
  
The pseudo-cat continued its trek throughout the city as it scanned in multi-channel. It had detected some powerful entities within the metro area it had found itself in and was heading in that direction to assess their potential threat. It may take awhile to complete the intelligence gathering, but it had time. They had waited since just after the founding of the Moon Kingdom, they could wait some more.  
  
It also kept coming back to that, what could have happened to the Moon Kingdom?  
  
Yes, it will scout around some more, assessing the technology and defensive capabilities of it's surroundings while waiting for the report from the flyer and its eventual return.  
  
Maybe it would have found its answers by then.  
  
************************************  
  
The week went by and Ranma surprised herself, she had found that her grades have improved over what she was used to getting. Not being attacked every five minutes for no reason had really helped her. Also Michiko and Tamami were good tutors in helping Ranma catch up to where the class is. Tamami was good at english, but hated it with a passion, so it was surprising that she helped Ranma with it. She was still behind, but making headway. Another girl that Tamami knew from another nearby class helped explain a daunting math problem so that Ranma could understand the ways and whys of the equation. Her name was Ami and Ranma recognized her from among the group of the four girls that were eyeing her on her first day, but that was the only time they did that, so Ranma had put it behind her.  
  
Also over the course of the week Ranma managed to add to her wardrobe. Lots of plain everything to wear was in her mind. Usually they would finish clean up about 8:30 and that left about thirty minutes for her to run next door to pick up some much needed items with her tip money. Michiko volunteered to help her when Ranma did do a quick "clothing run". The inside of the Team Leader Clothes and Fashions proved to be just loudly decorated on the inside as it was on the out. Right now Ranma had about five outfits in her collection and three of them were what she had with her when she came here.  
  
After that they would usually hit the books till about 11:00, bathe together quickly then retire for the night.   
  
It was also over the course of the week that Ranma found out more about Michiko's life. It seem she was orphaned at the age of seven when both her parents were killed by a drunk delivery driver as they were out for a morning stroll. She was devastated by the deaths, but came through it with the love and support from her family, especially Akiko.  
  
Ranma wondered about that. It seem that everyone she has gotten close to has had something bad happened to their parents. Her on the other hand still had both parents alive - but she was just as much an orphan as Michiko. Ranma's father was never really there for her when she was growing up. Sure they spent a lot of time together, but it was all training. Anytime Ranma truly needed her father she was on her own. Her mother, she wasn't there either, sometime she wondered why she even missed her to begin with, a mother that would let a man like Genma take her only child away like that. No, Ranma felt no love for her parents anymore, not after seeing how her friends parents treated them.  
  
She swore to herself that she would never be anything like her parents.  
  
*************  
Ranma then discovered that Juuban had half-day classes on Saturdays only every other week, this week being a Saturday off.  
  
That Saturday morning was fun too, Michiko had drug Ranma up early and met up with her friends for some window shopping and talking, and talking, eating, and talking walking around and more talking. Who knew girls talked so much? For some reason, Ranma felt relaxed around her new - friends, yes they were becoming friends, and it made her feel something she couldn't quite describe.  
  
Ranma thought about that some. When was the last time she really had a group of friends that she hung around with that wasn't trying to kill her or marry her? She couldn't remember when. In her past, her friends as well as Genma had always wanted something from her or for her to do something for them. Many times being something she shouldn't do or could not give. When she refused to comply with their wishes and demands, things got violent. What kind of friend would try to kill you to gain something you didn't possess to begin with? Ranma wondered if she truly had any friends before now, and that thought somehow depressed her.  
  
So here it was another Sunday, over one whole week since - she was found. She was walking alone to the nearby park to practice her favorite forms. She had been doing so well in her morning practices she wanted to reward herself. Michiko, not caring for the art, was with her friend Hitomo going to a capsule toy store to find more for Hitomo's collection which Ranma has seen, and admitted was kinda cool.  
  
Approaching the park, she felt truly happy for the first time since... she couldn't remember. Ranma stopped at the park gates at that thought. For the first time in her life she actually felt truly happy. She listed the thing that made her feel that way, she had a job and a roof over her head. Akiko who has become a surrogate parent to Ranma and Michiko that has become somewhat of a sister. Both accepted the story of her life with little reservation explaining that having weird magic girls that run around the ward fighting demons helped. Ranma had friends that didn't want to use her for their own gains and were fun to hang out with.  
  
Yup, life seemed to stop beating on Ranma for once and started actually treating her nice for a change.  
  
The sun was shining, the birds were singing and a gentle wind was blowing, Ranma was in her trademark clothes (with a sports bra, Akiko insisted) to partake in the refining of something she found she truly loved. The art. With that thought she entered the park.  
  
Then she sensed it. Her heart froze.   
  
[No! Dammit! NO! I'm happy, for the first time in my life! I'm happy! My life is finally coming together, no please not this!] She begged any god that would listen her.  
  
And the battlecry was heard.  
  
"SWEETO!"  
  
____________________________________  
  
I think you can tell what's going to happen next.  
  
Yes, there is wasabi ice cream, and some schools in Japan do half day Saturdays ever other week.  
  



	5. Juuban part 3 rev 2

rev. 2 - moderate edits  
  
Author peeks out from behind tree:  
  
Um, heres another go at it.  
As promised in an earlier chapter notes, I will be playing loose and fast with the sailor moon universe.  
  
I hope you like it.  
  
Author ducks back behind tree.  
  
Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
I don't not own any of these characters or situations and gladly borrowed from several different books I have read and a line from one Star Trek TOS episode.  
  
__________________  
  
Juuban part 3  
  
***********  
  
Ranma felt the impact of a small body against her chest before feeling her unbound breasts being fondled - and something else. Then it was gone.  
  
Ranma was pissed. More pissed than she had ever been in her whole life. Mikado's stolen kiss was nothing more than a candle against a nuclear meltdown compared to how angry Ranma was at this particular time.  
  
Happosai, the ban of her existence in her previous life has found her. She was not going to put up with him interfering in her life anymore and she was not going to let him get away with it.  
  
Happosai was happily bouncing around with Ranma's recently liberated sports bra in his hand. He was joyfully proclaiming the wonderful bounty that he had found. Ranma was not paying attention to the words that Happosai was spouting off. All she was feeling was nothing be hatred, and the thing she hated the most was right in reach.  
  
The battle was joined.  
  
**********************  
  
Ami was not happy. Last week at the scout meeting Pluto revealed that a new Senshi, Sailor Sun was coming. When asked for details she was unsurprisingly vague with the information, only saying that a girl by the name of Ranma was the new Senshi, and then expressly forbid any contact with her.  
  
She was her usual evasive self when question why.  
  
"Don't go to her, let her come to you." was her answer.  
  
Later after the meeting she used the Mercury computer to call up information about Sailor Sun, she did a search and came up with nothing. She then expanded the search to include all Senshi.  
  
All that she found after hours of effort was a list of the Senshi using their planetary names and a brief description of their abilities and some their attacks. Stuff that was common knowledge among their little group.  
  
Sailor Sun was not even listed.  
  
Now here it is a week later and Ami's curiosity had yet to be satisfied. Ami, laying in bed on her back, taking a break from her studies, studies that kept her from looking into Sailor Sun's past. She blew through her pursed lips and wondered.  
  
[Why isn't there anything on the computer on Sun?]  
  
Her eyes wandered over to her desk where her homework waited for her.  
  
[I'll try the Mercury computer again, there must have been something I overlooked.] she though reflectively.   
  
Removing it from the desk drawer she turned it on and sat with one leg tucked under the other.  
  
[Let's see what I can find.]  
  
After doing another search nothing new came up, Ami sighed. Sitting there lost in thought considering new approaches, Ami was not defeated quite that easy and expanded her search to include a cross reference to all the Senshi. There was no Sailor Sun listed among the expanded results. She was stumped, according to this there never was a Sailor Sun during the Silver Millennium.  
  
During the Silver Millennium. What about before?  
  
Every kingdom, country or nation has its periods or eras. She was limiting her search to longest and last era of the Moon Kingdom out of habit because that's where most of their enemies came from.  
  
She then decided to change tactics and include in her search the massive archival data of the Moon Kingdom from before the Silver Millennium. She did this with the added crossed reference results of the Senshi.  
  
***********************  
  
Happosai was in rare form. He zipped around Ranma's offenses and landed a few good hits through her defenses. Ranma cursed herself for getting angry, that was loosing control and that would not do. Ranma then concentrated on winning the fight, finding weakness and exploiting them. Ranma was upset about the loss of her bra, she didn't have many and that one was one she bought with her own money. And bras were expensive dammit!  
  
Ranma pushed those thoughts aside as she combated Happosai, she was giving him her full and undivided attention. That's why she was surprised, when she finally worked past his defenses and got within striking range, he suddenly broke away and instead of gaining some breathing room to attack, he reached over and pushed a yattai sending careening down the path.  
  
A path filled with innocent bystanders.  
  
Ranma knew Happosai was careless and inattentive to his surroundings in a fight, but this was deliberate! He was deliberately placing innocent people in harms way. Ranma didn't have time to reflect as she acted to protect those people that Happosai endangered. She leapt for the yattai and knocked off onto its side, and in that moment she was open. Happosai hammered her with a punch to the chest a kick to the chin and a cop of the breast, now hanging free from her torn shirt. He then leaped away gleefully laughing and provoking Ranma. Before Ranma could pick herself off the ground the screaming of many women filled her ears.  
  
Looking up from where she was hammered, she was horrified to see Happosai bounding from women to women, feeling, copping and basically disrobing three of them. He copped a feel so hard to one lady she almost dropped a baby in her arms. Happosai's was going too far! He done stuff like this before, but never to the extent that Ranma was witnessing today, everything before seemed minor compared to what was happening now. He had to be stopped. Ranma leapt up and came down near where he was manhandling what looked to be a junior high school student. Ranma drew him off by reengaging him in combat.  
  
Hey! You old perv, what the hell are you doin'. You could've killed someone with that stunt. Ranma called to him.  
  
Whatever I want, my boy. With you out of the way I have been having a grand ole time. And with you like this, I'll even have more fun! As he finish that statement he launched himself at Ranma - or more like Ranma's exposed breast.  
  
Ranma for her part expected the move and paired, sending Happosai back on to the ground, this time on his ass not his feet. Ranma moved in to take him out before he could recover...  
  
****************  
  
Listed were among the various references, some that Ami had seen before, were others that she had ignored thinking that they were "fringe" data, data that had little or no bearing in what she was really looking for. Now she was not so sure.   
  
Selecting some at random she was treated to what would be called "news bites" of today. This princess attended that, that princess attended this. Boring stuff and not useful at all to what her was looking for. She was right on her first assessment after all, this was fringe data.  
  
She then re-listed the data to arrange the items from the oldest to the newest, still limiting the search to items that predated the silver Millennium and to include the information on the Senshi, but this time eliminating those items under a certain size. The resulting list was much shorter, only two screens long.  
  
She selected the oldest one called "Utopia" and waited. After waiting longer than she was used to a Moon Kingdom Archive splash screen appeared with the title Utopia superimposed over it. Clicking through that she found a listing of about 500 other files. That's interesting. Scanning it she selected the one on the top untitled "Summary and History" and adjusting her glasses began to read.  
  
**********************  
  
What in the hell has gotten into Happosai? Ranma couldn't believe what he was doing, he was deliberating placing innocent people in the path of the fight. He was using them as an object to feel and as a human shield from which he could strike behind. He didn't seem to care about the lives he was placing in danger. When Ranma demanded to know why, his only answer was Better them than me!  
  
This angered Ranma, but she kept control. Ranma had to figure out a way to lure Happosai out into the open. With one breast hanging out that was easy to do.  
  
***************  
What Ami read was stunning. It dated almost to the beginning of the Moon Kingdom. It seemed in trying to protect the fledgeling Kingdom from external (which was perceived to be many at this point in history) and internal threats (which there was very few) various scientists and something called Techo-mages, which there was no definition for found, engaged in a project to produce sentient self reproducing bio-weapons to do the job. Problems were discovered when the "Protectors", as the bio-weapons were christened were programed to respond to any, by definition, of what was thought as a threat to the Moon Kingdom. Like most everything that works as an ideal theoretical situation, it failed on implementation, because everyone had there own ideal what a threat was.  
  
These sentient bio-weapons, apparently deemed humanity a threat to the ideal of peace and justice to the Moon Kingdom and took steps to protect it.   
  
To protect the ideal. Not the reality.  
  
In a pitched battle, which nearly ended the young kingdom, the "Protectors" were ejected and locked away into a fold in space, creating a "pocket universe" with finite limits. They have been there ever since.  
  
From then on the "Protectors" were referred to as the "First Enemy".  
  
An enemy of the Moon Kingdom's own making.  
  
***********************  
  
Laying there on her back, looking at the clouds surround by the sea of blue that was the sky, Ranma reflected on how badly she was doing against Happosai. Ranma had seriously underestimated the speed that Happosai could move at.  
  
Focus dammit, focus! She let her emotions rule her in the fight, her anger, and now she was paying the price. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! She berated herself.   
  
[How can I win this if I let my emotions run unchecked?]   
  
Ranma was picking herself out of the mini crater she found herself in.  
  
She pushed herself up with one arm and saw Happosai going again at the screaming running crowd, copping and feeling. The men in the crowd tried to stop him by dog-piling him, but in the end they were left scattered and injured.  
  
Ranma intercepted Happosai when he was about to grope another school girl and got batted into the crater she just emerged from, with some other things he did to her.  
  
[HOW DARE HE!!] Ranma roared in her head. It was bad enough that he found her and tormented her, it bad enough that he is tormenting and endangering innocent people, but this time...  
  
... Not only had the little pervert felt her up roughly, more roughly than he ever has, but he cop a feel down... down THERE!  
  
He was so dead.  
  
She was about to stand when a few of the bystanders from the crowd, two women, came over to check on her. She was about to call to them to that she was alright, when she noticed Happosai taking a stance she has seen many times before.   
  
[Oh NO! He wouldn't, not with all these people around.]   
  
He did. A Happodaikarin. A big one, lit and infused with his own ki.  
  
Ranma reacted instinctively and lunched herself at the good samaritans that were coming to her aid. She scooped both women, who reacted by squealing in surprise, into her arms and leaped for all it was worth. The explosion was deafening and literally rock the park, rattling glass in nearby store fronts, but strangely doing little actual damage to the park. The debris from the blast shredded what little was left of Ranma's shirt as she used her body to shield the innocents in her arms.  
  
Innocents that would have surely been injured or worse in the explosion.  
  
Happosai has gone too far.  
  
He has endangered the weak and the helpless.  
  
Martial artist are suppose to protect them. Happosai has betrayed the art. He must pay. He must be brought to justice.  
  
Ranma had more than enough. Setting down her charges, she absently rubbed her chest where Happosai has taken the very painful feel, she tapped once again into her will to live and felt the ki lines flow through her body. She kept her emotions under control, but almost lost it when Happosai bound away to cop another feel from some poor screaming school girl.  
  
Happosai, returning from his quick feel, was holding forth Ranma's bra again, and gloating at the standing Ranma as she rubbed her breast from where he had felt her up.   
  
Well Ranma, I see you have learned some new moves, not that it did you any good. So why don't you come here let an old man have another go at your charms, or maybe these other ladies will do?  
  
Happosai motioned toward the crowd, which was still sizable at this point.  
  
[Why in the hell are these people still around here? They should have cleared out along time ago.] Ranma thought, , before turning her full attention to Happosai.  
  
The tickling that had been haunting the back of her mind for the last week increased to a buzzing. Part of her felt like it was in tuning into something like a radio would, what she did not know. The other parts of her were intent on stopping a certain pervert. So she wasn't paying too much attention to how she was feeling, she just focused on the task at hand: stopping Happosai and protecting those around her.  
  
But even if you don't pay attention to your feelings, they are still there. In the back of her mind, she had the thoughts of being a warrior, a protector. The very thoughts that were mirrored at the fore of her mind. When they met the thoughts were those of a...  
  
Female.  
  
For Happosai something caught his attention. Power. A lot of power. And it was all coming from a very focused redhead. That's when Happosai, for the first time in about 150 years, felt the cold hand of fear invade his heart. It was at that precise moment he knew was in trouble. Part of him hoped Ranma would succeed where others have failed, he also hoped in the end he would survive this to congratulate her. Rearranging his massive ki reserves to shield and reinforce his little body and concentrating it on the vital organs, he hoped to live through this.   
  
*****************  
  
Ami sat back from her computer, removed her glasses, rubbed her eyes and thought, [What does this have to do with the Senshi?]  
  
Indeed what? From what she read from the entire summary, the "First Enemy" incident predates the Silver Millennium and the Senshi. Or did it?  
  
The search results wouldn't have listed this file unless it had something to do with Sailor Sun or the Senshi.  
  
Looking again at the history of the "Protectors" she just read, she pondered. "Fringe" data, what if the scouts were fringe data in this serach? Where? Looking at the side bar she spotted the link near the bottom to the References. That menu expanded into several subcategories, many that didn't seem helpful. Clicking down to line, Ami found her suspicion confirmed. She clicked on down away hoping to run into something interesting, when she clicked on Related Files, several more subcategories were listed. Seeing this she studied the list before deciding on Special Projects. Going down that list until she found Senshi. Just like that, plain as can be, Senshi. Opening that Ami was greeted to yet another list. They were listed in numeric order which could be dates or project numbers, Ami could not tell. These items were listed as so:  
  
5678 Omni  
5682 Firefly  
5682 Drumbeat   
5683 Cornfield  
5683 Heaven's Bearer   
5684 Heaven's Touch   
5686 Harbinger   
5686 Harbinger's Runner  
5688 Harbinger's Twilight   
5689 Wind Walker  
5693 Fire Walker   
  
Fringe data, indeed.  
  
[Must be dates of some sort. Some of them repeat.] she thought offhandedly.  
  
Selecting the first one she was again treated to a splash screen as before. in big bold letters on top with the smaller word underneath. She clicked past this and was treated to a summary of how Tuxedo Mask was created.  
  
*********************  
  
Ranma stood on the edge of the blast crater, focused. Her mind was clear, the anger had passed. She had a sworn duty and she was going to perform it, even if it killed her.   
  
A sworn duty.  
  
She moved.  
  
During that moment, that one instant in time, things happened. Time seem to stop, leaving everything frozen. Except for Ranma, for her time just merely seemed to slow while she moved.  
  
Step.  
  
Happosai had recklessly and deliberately endangered the lives of many innocent people, in spite of the chances Ranma gave him the stop, he has betrayed the art - justice must be served.  
  
Step.  
  
A dream like phrase, breezed through Ranma's mind so fast she couldn't catch it all of it. The words should be familiar, but she failed to grasp them. Only the last part, "...make up" was all she remembered.  
  
Step.  
  
Ranma focused on the evil in front of her, ignoring the bands of light that danced before her eyes and dissipated just as quickly. If Ranma wasn't so focused, she would've realized that she was no longer wearing her trademark red and black outfit.  
  
Step.  
  
Arm cocked back, preparing to deliver justice to the wrong doer. Justice....  
  
Step.  
  
... More words from her dreams, this time more solid. Words she spoke many times before in her past, but words she could never remember saying.  
  
Step.  
  
In the name of the Moon ...  
  
Step.  
  
... Kingdom and justice ...  
  
Step.  
  
... you shall be...  
  
Step.  
  
... punished.  
  
Ranma's right fist then connected to the left side of Happosai rib cage, crushing it.  
  
Lights flashed before Ranma's eyes as time sped up to normal. She was standing in to post strike position, arm extended and hand in a fist. Checking herself she found herself dressed as before. Strange, for a moment she thought she was wearing something else, something she was proud of wearing. The thoughts and feelings were hard to grasp, hard to hold on to. Ranma stood for a confused few moments until brought out of her trancelike state by a cheering crowd mixed with a few cat calls.  
  
Blinking her eyes and looking about her, she instinctively covered herself up, her shirt being torn and long gone from the battle, leaving her torso exposed. Then she traced Happosai path. He had left a long deep furrow where is tiny body cut through the earth. At the end of the trough was Happosai himself, laying still - with blood coming from somewhere. A several men kneeled over Happosai prone body, one shaking his head to the group that had gathered around the laid out pervert.   
  
"He's dead."  
  
Ranma's knees weakened and buckled and several arms caught her as she wavered, not noticing that most of the crowd had disappeared like a vapor.  
  
This had to be a nightmare, she prayed.  
  
**************************  
  
On a bed in a room that was obviously a girls room, a black cat rose its head with a crescent shaped symbol on it from its sleeping position and turned to face the direction of the park. after a moment it laid its head back down and continued its nap.  
  
*******************  
The pseudo-cat was taking readings from several high-power individuals, especially the old female that liked to balanced on a stick. She had an impressive amounts of bio-energy that could be very dangerous to some of the lower to mid-order shock-troops. The pseudo-cat wondered how many of these beings were in the area.   
  
It felt justified in sending the flyer, after it had returned from its moon mission to do "spot checks" of various places around the globe to assess this worlds defenses as a whole. That was of course, after reconfiguring its camouflage to make it an arial animal instead of a terrestrial.   
  
The pseudo-cat found out after the flyer left on its first mission that pigs can't fly.  
  
What was this? An energy spike. An enormous energy spike. Was it instrumentation? No, the old one noticed it too, judging from her reaction of falling off her stick. It lasted for only about 7/100ths of a second, but must have been powerful enough to distort space/time on a local level. This must be studied and reported.  
  
*******************  
  
Ami once again removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes for what must have been the twentieth time. She just read a summary on how Tuxedo Mask was created to be the Senshi of the Earth. From candidate selection to the infusing of power. The Techo-mages, whoever or whatever they were, really had great ingenuity to be able to fuse science and magic together and bind it not only to a persons life energy but their very souls themselves.  
  
To carry the power with them from one life to the next.  
  
Ami knew that Senshi were naturally born into their rolls, but the first ones...  
  
... the first ones were made.  
  
*************************  
  
She didn't remember much.   
  
All she remembered were impressions of someone(s) asking her repeatedly if she was alright. Somewhere a blanket appeared and she was gently wrapped in it. She didn't remember how she got to the hospital, or crying throughout the whole thing. There were doctors and nurses gently and carefully examined her, treating her injures, and talking to her softly. Her response was more tears.   
  
Happosai was dead.  
  
She had killed him.  
  
That was the only two thoughts that went through her mind.  
  
Happosai was dead.  
  
She had killed him.  
  
She couldn't stop thinking about those two thoughts.  
  
Happosai was dead.  
  
She had killed him.  
  
She tried, but it was like a tidal wave crushed every other thought.  
  
Happosai was dead.  
  
She had killed him.  
  
Why couldn't stopped thinking about it?  
  
Happosai was dead.  
  
She had killed him.  
  
Dear God, somebody please help me.  
  
Happosai was dead.  
  
She had killed him.  
  
No!  
  
Happosai was dead.  
  
She had killed him.  
  
Please!  
  
Was dead.  
  
Killed him.  
  
Help me!  
  
Dead.  
  
Killed.  
  
Ranma screamed.  
  
*****************  
  
Ami regarded the list and then went to the next to down. Firefly turned out to be Mars and Drumbeat was Mercury. Herself. She open the file, clicked through the splash screen and skimmed through the summary. It was pretty much like Tuxedo Mask with notations on how much better the energies were accessed through the female psyche as per earlier reference to project Firefly. Something about being female made it better able to interface, call upon and use the planetary powers.  
  
She clicked on the next one, and then next one, then she kept on going down the list.  
Cornfield was Venus [wait till she hears about that!], Heaven's Bearer was Moon, Heaven's Touch - Jupiter, Harbinger - Uranus, Harbinger's Runner - Neptune, Harbinger's Twilight - Saturn, Wind Walker - Pluto, and Fire Walker - Sun.  
  
Ami blinked. THAT was different.  
  
She quickly clicked through the splash pages for the other Senshi.  
  
Yes, Fire Walker's splash page was different.  
  
It was the only one to be bracketed by words top and bottom:  
"Classified Information" and   
"Access Forbidden Except for Authorized Personal"  
  
What in the world did the Techo-mages of the Moon Kingdom create?  
  
*******************   
  
The pseudo-cat made its report through the hyper-space uplink, along with some recommendations on how to proceed. There seem to be many different types of powerful beings that may have to be dealt with before rebuilding. It hope the council would take its suggestion of launching a few probing attacks to judge their reaction, if any.   
  
It decided to head back to its point of arrival since that is where in detected the possible Moon Kingdom warriors. If they were warriors, then the attack could be made with one or two low-level shock troops and with itself hidden, could get readings on the capabilities, reactions and potential threat factor on them and then report back with the results. They had to move carefully, the pseudo-cat wasn't even sure how many of the warrior there are, if any.  
  
The pseudo-cat knew the council would want a report on the energy spike, but it also knew by the time it got back to the area where the spike took place there would probably only be residual readings. Maybe the probing attacks would draw out this amomaly.  
  
Yes, probing attacks would be the best way at this point to assess the defensive capabilities of these warriors. It hoped the council will agree. They came too far to fail now.  
  
The rebuilding and future of the Moon Kingdom was at stake.  
  
*******************  
  
She slowly came too.  
  
She was laying down covered with a blanket and aware of someone holding her hand. Turning her head Ranma looked over to see to was Akiko.  
  
"Are you feeling better, dear?" Akiko asked softly, gently.  
  
Ranma looked about, confused. Then with a look of horror, she remembered. A groundswell of panic and fear grip her heart. She killed! She was a murderer! But before she could act on her emotions, they were calmed by the hazel-eyed women sitting next to her bed.  
  
"Calm down, Ranma. Relax, you don't want to have the doctors to have sedate you again, do you?" Akiko said while holding Ranma down to the bed by the shoulders, massaging them while doing so.  
  
Ranma physically relax, but mentally and emotionally was in turmoil, but this too was brought under control by the gentle hazel eyes that were boring into her, chasing the panic away.  
  
"There," Akiko said softly, "now I need you to do something for me. Would you?"  
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
"Thank you dear, this -" she indicated with a wave of her hand a man standing behind her, "is Lieutenant Deushi, he needs to ask you some questions. Do you think you're up to it?"  
  
Ranma who was still transfixed by those hazel eyes nodded.  
  
"Thank you." Akiko then turned and looked over her shoulder to the man in the black suit and tie. "Be easy with her, she has had quite an ordeal."  
  
Lieutenant Deushi nodded and in a quite, even voice began to ask Ranma about today's events...  
  
***************  
Seeing she would get no more answers from investigating the Sailor Sun angle, Ami turned to Ranma herself. Taking a few minutes for the Mercury computer to access the schools computer, letting its built in programs by-pass the security log on's and gain access to student records. She then pulled up Ranma's. She scanned the data as it came over her screen, the only thing that was amiss was listed under family name was the word "pending". There was no history listed in Schools Attended, other than that it had nothing she already didn't know.  
  
She then widen her search to include all students of high school age within the Tokyo area by the name of Ranma. Four were listed, but she quickly discounted them. They were all males.  
  
Seeing nothing more was going to be found, she cut off the computer and turned her attention back to her long neglected studies.  
  
*****************  
  
It was late in the afternoon by the time the hospital and the police released Ranma. She was wearing her black pants but she had lost her shirt in the fight and was now wearing a pale blue buttoned up that was donated to the hospital for just such circumstances. She walked and leaned heavily on Michiko, who had shown up in time for Ranma's release, physically, and Akiko emotionally. Walking down the front steps, they were offered a ride home by the two female officers that brought Ranma into the hospital earlier. They accepted and were soon transported to the restaurant. Waving goodbye to Officers Natsumi and Miyuki, Akiko unlocked the front door and she entered followed by the two girls.  
  
Ranma felt drained and weary. She wondered if she would get any peace. It seemed that every time that she was happy, something like this would come around and steal it from her. She wondered again what she had done to deserve this? One moment everything is fine and the next... damn it! Can't anything stay normal for once?  
  
Akiko lead Ranma upstairs to the living room where she normally slept. They settle on the mats together around the table.  
  
"Granny?" Ranma asked in a voice she hadn't used all week.  
  
"Yes, dear?"  
  
"Are you mad at me? Do you want me to leave?" The last asked in a small voice.  
  
"Heaven forbid! Of course not. You may not think it now, but you did the right thing."  
  
"How can killing somebody be the right thing." Ranma quailed and broke down crying yet again.  
  
Akiko held her, again, like she did earlier. Rubbing her back and saying soothing words. Ranma sniffled out and rubbed her eyes, and looked at Akiko.  
  
"I'm sorry" were the first words out.  
  
"Please don't start apologizing again," Akiko said with a half gentle, half commanding tone, "I just broke you of that habit."  
  
"I'm sorry" Ranma repeated this time with a small smile crossing her lips.  
  
Akiko knew she was being teased and took it as a good sign. Then in her gentle nature turned serious without any hard edges to it.  
  
"Ranma did you know who that man was?"  
  
Ranma nodded. "Yes, he is, ...was the master of my style of martial arts. He use to steal from the girls back is Nerima and was a real perv, no one tried to stop him. Except me."  
  
By this time Michiko entered with a tray of tea and cookies.  
  
"I see, and why is that?"  
  
"Well, mainly because the other two were afraid of him and didn't want to face his wrath."  
  
"I see, and why did you try to stop him?"  
  
"Because it was the right thing to do. Because he was picking on the defenseless and the weak and being a real perv while at it." Ranma replied.  
  
"Exactly, and from what you told me, you said that the swore duty of a marital artist was what...?"  
  
"To protect the weak and those who can't protect themselves."  
  
"And, what did you do that the other masters didn't?"  
  
"...."  
  
"I'll tell you, you acted on those beliefs. You protected the weak. You protected the helpless. You live by those words, you just don't carry them on your tongue." Akiko said with such conviction that it was like a knife that stabbed into the heart of the matter.  
  
"But... I killed today. Isn't that wrong?" Ranma voice wavered.  
  
"Yes it is wrong to kill, but it also wrong to let evil or wrong doers to continue be unchecked and loose upon the rest of the world."  
  
"But, I didn't have to go that far I could have..."  
  
"Ranma," Akiko began in her gently yet firm way, "many times in life you don't get to choose the outcome. Sometimes all you can do is hope for the best. This, Happosai was a master martial artist was he?"  
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
"Then you would have to, as you would say it - take him down "hard" before he could do anything, right?  
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
"Then tell me, how many opportunities in the past did you give him to surrender, to change his ways, to stop abusing the very martial arts that are there to protect the very people he terrorized?" Akiko asked.  
  
Ranma just looked at her. She had a point, Happosai had abused the art for his own pleasure at the expense of innocent people. He was no martial artist, he may have known how to use martial arts, but he was no martial artist as Ranma defined one. Thinking back to what he did at the park, all the people who were terrorized, hurt and put in danger for his pleasure. He was a pervert, and Ranma stopped him.  
  
"Sometimes the choice is taken out of our hands - Happosai made his choice when he molested you. Would you rather he be out right now molesting other girls - your friends from school or Michiko here?" Akiko pressed on.  
  
Ranma shook her head.  
  
"From what I remember from the stories you told me, and what the police lieutenant told me at the hospital that this Happosai has been doing this for decades. They have been trying to capture and stop him for all that time. Hundreds of young women had stolen from them of have been felt upby him and now hundreds of young women have you to thank that they are now safer." Akiko stated in such a why than Ranma couldn't argue the point.  
  
Ranma pondered this while Akiko sipped her tea. Akiko had a point, how many times do you give a menace a chance to change his ways before the needs and the safety of the majority come into play. She had been so concerned for one person that she forgotten all about Happosai victims, and there were many of them. Many young women terrorize by that little freak. Ranma started feeling better about it, but was still uneasy and guilty about taking a life.  
  
It felt like having to deal with a necessary evil. She didn't like it. Not at all.  
  
*****************  
  
For Akiko it has been a long day. She was glad that Ranma wasn't seriously injured, but worried about her mental state. There was a molester, who enjoyed tormenting young women by stealing their undergarments and no one being able to stop him, and Ranma stopped him. This was something to be proud of, instead Ranma agonized over it. It took some effort to convince Ranma that she did the right thing. Ranma's' concerned to whether she did the morally right thing was a testament of how big Ranma's heart really was.  
  
She was pleased that after calming and talking with Ranma she seem to come around a bit. Akiko realized that all Ranma needed was to "look at the big picture" to see what damage this man was doing to other peoples lives. If there was any doubts in her clan about Ranma then this incident would surly erase that. She so wanted to talk to her tonight about her future, but that can wait until tomorrow. To much has happened to the poor child today.   
  
*****************  
  
Ranma laid awake in her futon going over the words of Akiko said earlier.   
  
...many times in life you don't get to choose the outcome. Sometimes all you can do is hope for the best...  
  
then  
  
...Sometimes the choice is taken out of our hands - Happosai made his choice...  
  
and then  
  
...hundreds of girls and young women have you to thank that they are now safer."  
  
A sworn duty.  
  
Protect the weak and defenseless...  
  
...in the name of the Moon Kingdom.  
  
Where did that come from?   
  
Ranma was troubled, and it was not just the death of Happosai, there was other things. These dreams have been getting more and more frequent and vivid. What did it all mean?  
  
...make up.  
  
Make up what? Was it something she was suppose to do? Why did this haunt her so? Leaving those thoughts behind she rolled over onto her side and drifted into a troubled sleep.  
  
________________________________  
  



	6. Juuban part 4 rev 2

Author still behind tree:  
  
Um, hello again. Okay I admit to playing really loose and fast with the Sailor Moon universe. So there.  
  
I hope you all will enjoy this anyway.  
  
I am planning on re-visiting my earlier chapters to clean them up, but at this stage I more concerned with getting the story out. I'm afraid if I try to go back right now I'll get "bogged" down and not finish this.  
  
And I wanna finish this.  
  
This chapter got out so fast because it was part of the previous chapter, which got kinda big. The next one will take a little longer.  
  
Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
I don't own any of these characters or situations, this is done purely for fun, and so far its been fun.  
  
_________________________  
  
Juuban part 4  
  
************  
  
When she got up the Monday after, Akiko asked if she would like to stay home that day to recover from the events of the pervious day. Though Ranma thought about it, she decided against it, seeing getting back into a routine as the key to putting what had happened behind her.  
  
Wow, Ranma wanting to go back to school.  
  
The first day at school after the "incident" was somewhat nerve-racking for Ranma. Thank god for Michiko and her friends that were there to run interference. Word had gotten around that a famous molester, panty thief and master martial artist was killed by a red-headed girl who was also martial artist, who on top of that, saved a bunch of people from getting blown up. There were very few red-headed teenaged girls in Juuban, and among them, there was only one that knew martial arts. A lot of people were putting two and two together, and it didn't help that several of Ranma's classmates were at the park at the time, too.  
  
Everyone seem to be trying to ask a lot of questions, without looking like they were trying to ask a lot questions.  
  
Shielded as she was from the blunt of the curiosity seekers by her friends, it was slowly wearing Ranma down, and she felt great relief when the bell sounded ending the school day.  
  
The curiosity seekers didn't end at school.  
  
When Michiko and Ranma made their way home at the end of the day, a crowd was gathered outside the restaurant waiting for it to open. Working through the crowd and entering, Michiko and Ranma did their usual "getting ready for work" routine and headed down stairs. Akiko was waiting for them.  
  
"Ranma dear, I need to ask you something", Akiko broached the subject.  
  
"Yes, granny?"  
  
"Do you know why there is a crowd outside?"  
  
"Ah.. 'cause their hungry?" she ventured.  
  
"That's "because", and no, not just because their hungry." Akiko corrected without any edge in her voice.  
  
"Then why?"  
  
"Ranma , dear their here to see you. I don't want to upset you, I know you been through a lot."  
  
"B.. but why? Why would a bunch of people want to see me?  
  
"Well dear, call it morbid curiosity - they heard a rumor about a certain red-head girl whose a martial artist that - deposed of a long time trouble maker and they want to see for themselves what you look like." Akiko said somewhat dejectedly.  
  
Ranma paled. God, this was worse than she imagined. Her thoughts were interrupted by Akiko again.  
  
"I can understand if don't want to work tonight, I'm sure we can get by without you." Akikio said in her patented gentle way.  
  
Ranma thought about it. Did she want to be on display like this? To have people stare at her and whisper behind her back or in front of her? Hell no! She didn't want that, but it was going to happen whether she was there or not. With that in mind, she steel herself for what was to come and answered.  
  
"Don't bother, Granny. I'll be fine, once the crowds curiosity is satisfied things will get back to normal. I'll be okay." Ranma said with a reassuring (she hoped) grin.  
  
"Are you sure?" Akiko replied with a raised eyebrow and hint of - pride in her voice.  
  
"Yes, Granny I'm sure - let'em come and stare. It'll be good for business while it lasts." Ranma said with a half-grin that didn't reach her eyes.  
  
Akiko nodded at that, then asked Michiko to unlock the door. A busy night was ahead of them.  
  
Later...  
  
Ranma had concentrated on her work to survived the evening. The crowds that moved in and out of the restaurant were much larger than normal and the behavior was anything but. Staring, long looks, whispered comments and subtle questions kept Ranma on edge the entire dinner rush. When it was over she silently thanked the powers that be that she made it through.  
  
The whisphered coments were the thing that bugged Ranma the most. The So that's her, She don't look like the type..., She must be really good... to one that nearly made her drop five orders of hamburgers, a pizza and the tea pot balanced on her head: I wonder if she as good in bed as she is at fighting?  
  
After the resturant was closed and before clean up started Ranma excused herself and retreated into the bathroom...  
  
... then she locked herself in for what seemed like a good, long cry.  
  
Afterword, while helping clean the kitchen, she thought about why she couldn't understand why a bunch of people would come all the way down here just to look at her. Ranma sighed. Long ago she remember saying that she'll never understand girls - now its just she'll never understand some people. Widening her scope to include males as well as females. Shaking her head to clear her mind she emptied one of her large pockets of her apron, well at least the crowd tipped good.  
  
*********************  
  
Later in the same week...  
  
Ranma was glad when her prediction was true. After the third night the crowd dwindled to back its normal busy as heck levels. After that she never gave it a second thought.  
  
Ranma, finishing the last of her homework with Michiko retired for the night.  
  
Laying in her futon she wonder for the how umpteenth time what it all her dreams could mean. It was really starting to get to her. She was starting to think it was stress, like Michiko and Akiko suggested, but there was something else, what she didn't know, but she got the impression that something was holding her back, keeping it from her. Ranma got annoyed with herself and finally rolled over and went to sleep.  
  
**********************  
  
Ranma was thankful to have Michiko in her life.  
  
Over the course of the passing weeks Ranma and Michiko started getting closer. For Ranma it was nice to have someone to talk to that wasn't out to get her, and she felt comfortable talking about anything: school, work and weird dreams. The death of Happosai had especially been a hard blow on Ranma emotionally but Michiko had the same patients as Akiko and helped Ranma through her difficulties. Talking does help, Ranma discovered.  
  
Ranma thought back in the past about how the as treated. She could never talk about anything with anyone. Her father - no ex-father never cared, and if she wanted to talk about her thoughts and feelings he would say something idiotic like "Quiet boy! You sound like a girl talking that way." Ranma thought, no not thought, knew no one cared for her. They would either take things the wrong way or try to sell it to the highest bidder for a quick buck or worse yet, think of her feelings as unimportant.  
  
Here it was different. Ranma felt she could confess her deepest thoughts to Michiko or Akiko and they would listen without judgment and make helpful suggestions or comments. What she thought and felt was important. If this is what it feels like to be treated as a human being, Ranma began to think that maybe she should have left the Tendo's a long time ago.  
  
Ranma also recognized that she was changing from within. In the past she used to fight and cling to her manhood, after life on the streets it stopped mattering. Trying to survive took all her attention from whether she was a boy or a girl and after awhile she stopped caring. All she cared about was just getting through another day. Now she was settled and thoughts of finding a cure or something to unlock the curse never seem to cross her mind. The ideal of staying like this and living her whole life as a girl didn't seem like such a bad thing anymore. There was still a small part of her that wanted to be a man again, but overall being a man now seemed unimportant and trivial. She was happy the way she was, and was adapting to being a girl.  
  
Hell, talking over about what boys Michiko liked didn't make her sick anymore.  
  
Ranma's life has improved, or so she felt, past the level it was when she was at the Tendo's. She started thinking that maybe the hardship of the streets were worth it if it meant ending up here.  
Also she found, the work at the restaurant was fulfilling in its own way, not because she was working for room and board but because she cared about the people she was working with.  
  
**************  
  
She was laughing again. She always felt that way after a ball.  
  
The ball had been such fun, they always were. She was walking along the long carpeted hallway with two other faceless girls as they merrily bantered back and forth and each other. The tall windows that filled one side of the gallery showed the Earth hanging in the deep blackness of space. One of the figures, taller than her dressed in a formal tuxedo, with short close-cropped blond hair leaned forward and kiss Ranma on the cheek.   
  
Ranma blushed, giggled and batted playfully at her friend. The other faceless girl, that was shorter than the first had shoulder length turquoise hair and dressed in a formal gown much like the one Ranma was wearing leaned in and kissed Ranma's other cheek. All three joined in another round of giggling.  
  
Ranma knew these were Senshi, Uranus and Neptune, and she had a special bond with these two. Not as close as they had with each other of course, nothing could come between them, nothing. But they were fun to be with when they all were together at court...  
  
...but she had a secret. What they didn't know she was a Senshi too. Oh, Ranma wanted to tell them so badly, but Serenity made her promise not to say anything to anyone. The price paid for being a secret weapon. But a promise is a promise and she always kept her promises.   
  
Pooh.  
  
The two faceless girls stopped in front of their door and said their goodnights. Ranma sighed, with a smile on her face, and wished them a goodnight as well. Fun never lasts forever. Then the faceless Neptune whispered something into the taller ones ear. They laughed and turned to look at Ranma and invited her in. Ranma laughed at them and entered their chambers.  
  
The faceless Uranus lead the way while the faceless Neptune closed the door behind them, more playful talking and laughing. Ranma felt a soft touch on her back as her gown loosen around her. Ranma giggle and rolled her shoulder seductively -  
  
- her gown was now at her ankles, she wore nothing underneath.  
  
Neptune came up from behind and pressed her warm, soft and now naked body against Ranma's back and rested her head on Ranma's shoulder, a red head next to a turquoise head. Both facing a smiling and flushed Uranus. Together the two girls moved forward as one toward a blond, tranfixed and tuxedoed girl....  
  
... Ranma had played this game before with them...  
  
**************************  
  
Ranma cracked her eyes open into narrow slits, laying under the covers still warm from the dream she just woke with.  
  
"Oh man." Ranma moaned softly from her futon, "I really am turning into a pervert."  
  
[..and you loved every minute of it.]  
  
[Yeah, I did, didn't I. I didn't know I was that flexible.] smiling weakly.  
  
[ahh, the joys of sharing with very "special" friends.]  
  
[You said it, I wonder how Uranus did that with her -] the smile broadened.  
  
[- and who knew Neptune could be so domineering when she with you?]  
  
[I ain't complaining, I surprised I wasn't sorer, they sure know how to treat a girl....] smiling even wider.  
  
Then eyes widened as Ranma realized what she had been thinking and then blushed hard, turning even redder on top of being flushed from being aroused from the dream. Kicking off her covers she froze on examining her night clothes.  
  
[Ah man, I thought only guys did that.]  
  
She clean up her futon and then set it out to air out on the back roof. Then she dashed down the hall to bathe. With cold water. With lots and lots of cold water.  
  
************************  
As Ranma made her way downstairs, early as usual to start her workout she pondered, Neptune and Uranus? Names? Yes. "Special" friends? If her dream was any indication, hell yes. To date it was the most - vivid dream Ranma has had in the last week. There had been a few of them, but they usually left Ranma with a fleeting feeling after she has been awake for awhile. Not this one. This one was solidly in place between her eyes. What did this all mean and who were these people?  
  
[Man, these dreams are getting weirder and weirder.]  
  
But, she had to admit to herself, it was Blush nice.Then pushing all thoughts of the night before out of her conscience mind she filed the dream away for future thought. She then began to quickly rearrange the dinning room to give her room for her morning practice.  
  
**************  
  
Akiko had been having discussions with her father over Ranma. After hearing about Ranma's life from Akiko, he said he would consider it after checking out Ranma's background. That was done, and for the most part Ranma's story checked out - right down to the multiple fiance's, an abusing tomboy, a extortionist, a nutty samurai wannabe and a "little troll of a woman" as the private investigator described it. Having a brother who ran a private investigation service did come in handy to the family. Anyway, her father approved and drew up papers if Ranma accepted. Akiko did want to help Ranma out and giving her a family name would go along way in helping.  
  
She decided to broach the subject with Ranma tonight after work.  
  
***************  
  
At school during lunch Ranma was involved in an interesting conversation. The buzz was about the Senshi fighting some demons or monsters the night before and Ranma had to ask about it.  
  
"You haven't heard of the Senshi?" Ranma's friend Chiyo exclaimed.  
  
"I thought everyone's heard of them." added Hitomo.  
  
"Girls, Ranma is new to our ward, she hasn't heard of the weird going on's here because she was keeping up with the weird going on's in her old ward." Michiko said in Ranma's defense.  
  
"Ah... so who are the Senshi?" Ranma ventured into unknow territory.  
  
They're a group of magic girls that go around and fight for love and justice!" Chiyo said dramatically. A little too dramatic as Ranma almost gagged.  
  
"They go out and fight these demons that go around terrorizing and hurting innocent people. They even save an uncle of mine once during and attack at one the shopping districts." Hitomo said rather proudly.  
  
"So... they fight demons?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Yes and they slay them, too." Ranma paled at that a little, killing being a sensitive subject for her right now.  
  
Michiko sensing her friends unease steered the conversation a little. "They're nine of them that we know of. All named after the planets."  
  
[Planets?] Ranma thought then asked "Why?"  
  
"No one really knows why, but there seem to be two distinct groups called the Inners and the Outers. The Inners all have the names of the planets up to Jupiter. Except Earth, for some reason there was no Sailor Earth, but there is a Sailor Moon." Michiko stated  
  
"But there is Tuxedo Mask." Hitomo interjected.  
  
"Sailors? Tuxedo Mask?" Ranma getting lost.  
  
"Yes, Tuxedo Mask. He's a real handsome man who fights along side the Sailor Scouts." Tamami who was now getting into the conversation, gushing about a man no one has really gotten a good look at.  
  
"Sailors or Sailor Scouts is what the Senshi are also called. " Chiyo added, clearing up that issue.  
  
"Oh, what about ah... the Outers?"  
  
"Oh yeah, they show up from time-to-time, they are named after the plants beyond Jupiter. There's Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto who hardly ever shows up. They can kick any demons ass!" Chiyo said a little too excitedly for Ranma's taste, but she overlooked it considering how much she enjoyed her company overall.  
  
[Neptune and Uranus?] Ranma mused.  
  
Before the conversation could continue the lunch bell rang and it was time to go back to class.  
  
*************  
That evening all during the dinner rush, Ranma's mind was occuptied by what she had learned at lunch today. Neptune and Uranus. Two names. Two names that were used by two of the Senshi. Two names that figured prominently in the last dream she had. Was there a connection? If so, how would Ranma go about finding out?  
  
They have been in the news a lot lately, maybe it was coincidence that she has the dream right after hearing about the demon they destroyed in the streets. The rough description that Hitomo, gave was close enough to match what she saw in her dreams. Ranma was starting to get a creepy feeling all over, like the kind you get when you are about to hit upon something. The feeling passed when one of her tables signaled for more tea.  
  
Maybe she should seek them out, was her last thought on the subject.  
  
***************  
  
Ranma had just finished up mopping the floor and was preparing to rearrange the furniture back into its original location when she was interrupted.  
  
"Ranma dear. Do you have a minute?" Akiko asked as Ranma was gripping the edge of a table.  
  
"Sure, Granny. Give me a sec." And within that second it seemed that Ranma had restored the room to its original configuration. Akiko had gotten use to Ranma's displays of speed, witnessing it every morning, but it was still a thrill to see it in action.  
  
"What can I do for you Granny?" Ranma asked, hardly out of breath.  
  
"Well, Ranma its not so much what you can do for me, its what I can do for you."  
  
Ranma blinked.  
  
"Remember after - that incident - I talked with you on the difficulties you would face now that you are ronin?"  
  
Ranma nodded, she remembered. Akiko continued  
  
"Well, I talked to my father about it and after "checking you out" so to speak, he has agreed to my request to bring you into the Yonai clan." The last said with a certain amount of satisfaction and hope.  
  
Ranma was stunned by these turn of events. First this women, no, this kind woman and family takes her in, a nameless nobody, treats her with kindness and respect, gives her a job, a home and now wants to know if she would be interested in joining their family. Ranma had only one answer.  
  
"I would be honored to."  
  
******************  
  
This Saturday being an off day, it was decided that Yonai family would get together at the restaurant and greet its newest member. Ranma was understandably nervous. She fretted about her clothes and played with her long ponytail, trying to keep calm. Family, these people would be the ones she would call family, that thought excited her and scared her at the same time. Excited her because she did feel like she was part of the family as far a Akiko and Michiko were concerned, scared because she was afraid that she would do something to screw it up. It all added up to a nervousness that over-ruled everything. She had just used the toilet for the 6th time in 20 minutes.  
  
Finally the appointed hour neared, a group of about twenty people of all ages entered through the front door with the sign "Closed - private party" hanging from it. Ranma's nerves were building for another restroom run when Akiko calmed her with a hand too her shoulder. Ranma looked at Akiko who was smiling at her and then turn in the direction that she indicated with a nod as an elderly man with a cane in one hand hobbled in through the front door flanked by younger man.   
  
You can tell the older gentleman was a Yonai. The same hazel eyes that seem to permeated everyone born into clan were blazing under the balding head and elfish nose set in a oval shaped face. The younger one looked like younger version of the older one, you could tell that they were of the same family. The duo came up to Ranma and the older of the two addressed her.  
  
"I take it you are Ranma?" The elderly man said with care in a slightly high pitched voice.   
  
Ranma bowed low. "Yes sir, I am."  
  
The elderly man nodded his head, "I am Hiroji, head of the Yonai clan. On behalf of the clan members here, I welcome you into it."  
  
"It is an honor to be welcome into such a family as honorable as yours." Ranma replied while bowing again, hoping she was making a good impression. [Darn it! I shouldn't have had that glass of water!]  
  
"Come," Hiroji said, with his free hand extended, "let me introduce you to the rest of the family..."  
  
**************  
  
In another part of Juuban, another type of meeting was taking place. This time in Ami's bedroom, for the shrine and Rei's grandfather was going to be busy with visitors that day. Ami had just finished telling the others what she had found out about the creation of the scouts, and the restricted access to Sailor Suns files. She also demonstrated where on the computer she had found the files.  
  
Minako was a little annoyed, "Why the hell did they name my project Cornfield?"   
  
Ami, in trying to keep the meeting on course, quickly took the other scouts through the files that she had discovered and stopped at the splash screen of Sailor Sun. The four girls (well four of them, the fifth was reading a manga she brought with her) were studying the screen.  
  
"How do you enter a password on this thing? There is no place to put one." Makoto asked.  
  
Ami blinked at that, something she over looked and didn't even consider. Re-studying the screen she could see what Makoto was pointing out, there was no place for a password to be entered. With that thought she wondered how did the computer knew it was her? Surly it wouldn't let anyone have access to the Moon Kingdom files. Hmmm.  
  
"Maybe you just have to have someone with access to the files start and use the computer." Usagi said off handedly, without thinking, all the while still having her nose in her comic. [Oh! This is so romantic!]  
  
The other four girls stopped what they were doing and stared at her, two slacked jawed.  
  
Later...  
  
"Okay, click here." Ami guided Usagi through the menus.  
  
"Like before?" Usagi asked.  
  
Ami breathed out. "Yes, just like before." This was slow going. Usagi just discovered the simple joys of clicking and Ami was glad it was simple because she didn't think Usagi could handle anything more complex.  
  
"Okay, now go down here and click."  
  
"Like before?"  
  
"Yes, just like before." Ami said while Usagi obeyed the instructions.  
  
Before to long (it felt long to everyone else in the room, except for Usagi who thought the whole thing was "neat") they soon found themselves at where the splash page was in question.  
  
"Now try to click though." Ami said.  
  
"Like before?"  
  
"Yes, Yes, YES! Like before!" Rei shouted, long having lost her patients. At least her project had a cool name. [Cornfield] snicker  
  
"Whaaa! Don't yell at me, I'm doing the best I can."  
  
Ami rubbed her temples, was this really worth it? "Yes, Usagi. Like before." she finally worked out.  
  
Usagi clicked. The splash page immediately changed to a listing of files.  
  
"Good! Were in! Now Usagi, go click on the line that says "Summary and History" it's right there near the top." Ami said while pointing to the line mentioned.  
  
Moving the pointer to the said line Usagi hesitated, "Like before?"  
  
Ami rolled her eyes, Rei bit into a pillow to keep from screaming and Minako and Makoto looked on at her with bemusement.  
  
Sigh, "Yes, like before."  
  
The history of Sailor Sun laid bare before them. The four girls heads moved closer to each other, reading the creation of a Sailor Scout that according to the records from the Silver Millennium, never existed.  
  
************  
  
The pseudo-cat was pleased with its readings from the last set of probing attacks. The only one that the council was concerned about was the cause of the very large energy spike that occured well over a week ago. As it expected, when the pseudo-cat managed to located the location of where the spike occurred, there was nothing more than residual energy. Not enough to really gage the amount or type of energy but enough to know that it did disrupt the space/time locally. This would be a formable opponent if they were ever to faced it. All the shock troops, mid and heavy troops and Exterminators that would come later, that have been build up over the centuries, would not stand a chance against such a force.  
  
It would have liked to have sent the flyer out to scout around, but it had yet to return from its spot checking mission. It would have to do this without its assistance.  
  
Faced with the possibility of an unknown powerful opponent, it was no surprise that the council sent their ultimate weapon through to the pseudo-cat for safe keeping. If the invasion, or "re-construction" as it was referred to was threaten by this unknown and powerful factor then it could be dealt with.  
  
Deep inside the interior of the pseudo-cat, hidden from view, the Protectors ultimate weapon, developed over the centuries was dormant, awaiting the instructions that would turn it loose. But like anything that has tremendous power it was feared by its creators. Anything with that much power would be impossible to control if it decided to go rogue.   
  
It could be their own undoing.  
  
*************  
  
"Wow." That was the general comment from three of the people in the room. Ami having read hers and Tuxedo Masks files was less than impressed. Usgai long getting board, sat in front of the computer reading her manga again.  
  
"I don't understand this" Ami began, "I was expecting some deep hidden secrets or something. This was pretty much like the other files on how we... I mean the Senshi were created."  
  
"You mean the other files are pretty much like this?" Rei asked  
  
"Pretty much." Ami Answered.  
  
"Cool, movies!" Usagi said enthusiastic.  
  
"Where?" the other four girls said at the same time.  
  
"There, see"." said while pointing at a group of files with the heading "Videos of Tests"  
  
"Pick one" Ami said, excitement in her voice, maybe this will show us something.  
  
Usagi moved the pointer over a file and opened her mouth.  
  
"Yes, like before!" Rei said before Usagi could say anything. She pouted and clicked.  
  
The screen filled with a video of Sailor Sun flying up through the clouds before summoning a sword from nowhere and slashing the air before her....  
  
***************  
  
The four scouts sat dumbfounded. Even Usagi was effected by what she saw, long forgetting her manga.  
  
"Oh my god." was her only comment.  
  
"A whole solar system - just like that." Minako said quitely.  
  
"Such power." Rei  
  
"And reading the attached commentary this was just one of her low end, high-powered attacks." Ami stated, then turned from the screen to face her fellow scouts, "That means she is more powerful than that and she was holding back."  
  
"I though Saturn..." Rei began  
  
Saturn is like a match to an atomic blast next to Sailor Sun." Ami compared, "My question is why we haven't found out about her before now?"  
  
"A black project." Minako stated, feeling she a pretty good grasp of the situation.  
  
"A black project.?" Ami and Rei inquired, at the same time.  
  
"Well, that is what they called it in this movie I saw. Anyway it is a project that's so secret that it doesn't offically exist." Minako continued, "If this is a black project though, than why did we find it?"  
  
Ami picked up and theorized, "Well, as Sensi it would be natural to assume that we would be granted a certain amount of clearance. Some," looking at Usagi, "more than others. We stumbled on the files for Sun by not really looking for them."   
  
"Huh?" Makoto puzzled  
  
"Remember, we found the files by going thru the file on the Protectors - not a direct path. The link must was been overlooked when whoever, or whatever put the archives together." Ami seemed satisfied with her theory. The rest of the girls seemed to be to.  
  
"That leaves the question of why keep it secret from us?" Rei asked.  
  
"Maybe," Usagi decided to put her two cents in, "seeing how the people reacted to Saturn, they decided to keep Sun a secret, after all people were scared of Saturn because she could destroy a world."  
  
Hell, Sun could sneeze wrong and take out a world. Rei snorted.  
  
"Maybe...." Ami thought, was she missing anything? No. "Maybe it is as simple."  
  
"What did you find out about Ranma herself?" Minoko asked quietly  
  
"Nothing" Ami replied "I looked up her school record but there wasn't anything helpful"  
  
"Who is this girl?" Rei asked, exasperated.  
  
"Can you show us what you did find?" Makoto asked  
  
"Yes" Ami answered as she reached for the Mercury computer. The instant she touch the computer the Sailor Sun page that they were looking at reverted to the Splash page with the restricted flags on it top and bottom. [That's interesting.]  
  
Ami quickly brought up the school files on Ranma. The only difference she note that under the family name there was now Yonai listed there, other than that there was nothing of interest.  
  
"What about any other Ranma's in the system?" Minako  
  
"Tried that." Ami replied, "There all males."  
  
"Oooo, let's see." Makoto said clearly interested.  
  
Ami sighed [Oh, what the hell.] She began to punch up the four Ranma's she had found before, this time listing them with a more detail descriptions and with pictures.  
  
Four heads once again crowded around the tiny Mercury computer. The third one down caught Makoto attention.  
  
"Wow, He reminds me of my ex-boyfriend."  
  
Four eyes rolled, including Usagi who was back at reading her manga.  
  
Ami was about to clear the screen when something caught her attention. [Nerima ? where have I heard that before?]  
  
"Ami, what's wrong?" Minako asked noticing the slightly puzzled look across Ami's face.  
  
"I'm not sure, I've heard the name Nerima before, but I can't remember where." Ami pondered, hard. Where did she hear the ward Nerima before? [It was recent, maybe three or four weeks ago - I was in class, the lunch bell just rang and Tamami came over from the class next door and - of course!]  
  
"I got it!" Ami said loud enough that the other girls jumped. "I almost forgot, when Ranma first got here she was having problems with some math problems and Tamami, who is the same class as Ranma came over and got me to help explain it to her."  
  
The other three girls, and a forth who was now half pay attention just looked at Ami.  
  
"And...?" Rei prompted  
  
"Tamami introduced me to Ranma who she explained just transfered from the Nerima ward." Ami concluded.  
  
The other girls just blinked back Ami.  
  
Sigh"Lets have another look at this Ranma from the Nerima ward." Ami declared as she brought up a more detailed file - this one sporting a larger, clearer picture that interested Makoto even more.  
  
"Let's see Ranma Saotome, age 16, blah, blah, blah say, it says he hasn't attended school there in about the last six, no more like seven months." Minako pointed out.  
  
"No way! A cute hunk like that dropped out?" Makoto interjected. Then more quietly "Um...where is he staying?"  
  
Ami rolled her eyes, "It says he staying at the Tendo dojo, well at least up until six months ago."  
  
"Tendo dojo?" Makoto   
  
"Yes," Ami said while bring up a query, "And it appears that there are three Tendo's going to Furinkan High School with him." she did this while bringing up a screen listing the three Tendo's with pictures.   
Akane Tendo  
Nabiki Tendo  
Ranko Tendo  
  
The room went silent. There was no doubt, Ranko Tendo and the girl calling herself Ranma were one in the same.  
  
*********************  
  
It was about seven o'clock in the evening when the party broke up. Ranma, who was feeling a little overwhelmed at first, quickly gotten use to the Yonai clan in mass. They all shared the same traits, and she quickly grew attached to all of them. They seem the accept her past and promise to help her with her future.  
  
After helping in the clean up Ranma and Michiko sat around in the living room talking about everything that had happened that evening. From uncle Shoji breaking out a portable keraoki machine to one of the elderly aunts, Komachi, mispronouncing Ranma's name. Ranma and Michiko giggled at that. "Ranki","Ranko" (which made Ranma feel just a little depressed, but not by much), and "Ranchi" were just a few of the examples of the names than aunt Komachi called Ranma throughout the day.  
  
After a few hours and some additional prep work for the restaurant for Monday (they were closed on Sundays), Ranma and Michiko bathed then retired for the night.  
  
Ranma laid awake and staring off at the darken ceiling, with a warm feeling surrounding her. The warmth didn't just come from the comforter that protected her from the cool night air wafting through the open window. No. This warmed can from the feeling of belonging. Ranma Yonai. Had a nice ring to it, Ranma Yonai. Yep, it sure did. She sighed satisfyingly and snuggled closer under the blankets getting comfortable in there warm embrace. Wait a minute....  
  
Open window?  
  
I didn't open the window.  
  
Exploding from the futon she summersaulted up and over, turning on the overhead light by its pull string while in mid air. Landing in a guarded position she face her intruder.  
  
Hello Ranma  
  
Ranma's eyes narrowed dangerously toward a man who was two weeks dead.  
  
  
______________________________  



	7. Juuban part 5 rev 2

rev. 2 - major edits  
  
Thanks to everyone who wrote me. I don't know what he hell I was thinking. Hope this version is more acceptable.  
  
Introducing another Cliché.  
  
Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
I don't own any of these characters or situations, this is done purely for fun.  
_________________  
  
Juuban part 5  
  
****************  
  
"Happosai" Ranma said flatly, hiding her surprise.  
  
It was Happosai, all right. He stood there, just looking at her. His face was calm and almost serene. There was no hint of aggression in has stance, face or eyes. He looked like a half mummy, with his chest bandaged up as he was, but he seemed not to be that hurt.   
  
This was not the Happosai, as she had ever seen him. He just stood at the foot of her futon, looking at her with eyes filled not with lust or malice, but with a peaceful, contemplative look. In there somewhere Ranma also saw seemed like a bit of hope.  
  
"Ranma" Happosai stated again, not in his usual "sweeto" or "hotcha" voice, but voice that transferred calmness, peace and wisdom. The same emotions that was found in his eyes.  
  
Ranma still standing in a ready, guarded stance and was willing to protect what had become her home and family. She felt if Happosai was here to her or any of her loved ones, she would make damn sure this time he would end up in the morgue again, and stay there.  
  
However the air of peace coming from Happosai permeated the room, claiming Ranma somewhat.   
  
Happosai stood across from Ranma and regarded her with benevolent eyes.  
  
"It's okay, Ranma." Happosai said in the same voice he used. "I'm not here to hurt you or yours."  
  
Ranma blinked, was this Happosai, or some evil no, better make that good twin? Ranma wasn't so sure.  
  
"Ranma please." Happosai said, this time with a bit of pleading in it.  
  
"Okay," Ranma finally said, "What this all about?"  
  
"Not here. The roof, then follow me." was the reply.  
  
Stepping through the open window onto the roof above the kitchen area, Happosai then jumped up and onto the roof of the building itself, Ranma quickly dressed and followed. Upon reaching the roof, Ranma notice that the light coming from the streetlights below were casting an orange-ish tint in the night sky. Happosai waited for her, then repeated.  
  
"Follow me" then he took off across the rooftops, leaping and jumping as if he was never - well - never dead.  
  
After a short while...  
  
They finally stopped on top of a three story building surrounded by taller office buildings that were vacant for the weekend. The whole roof top of the building was bathed in the light of a large red sign mounted on the side of one its taller neighbors. The red light gave the whole scene a almost ghostly, surreal feel that for some reason put Ranma on edge.  
  
Happosai stopped in the middle of the roof as Ranma alighted on it. Happosai then seated himself with legs crossed and hands resting on his knees. He then removed a pipe from somewhere from his bandages, and using a bit of ki, lit it. Happosai, who was watching Ranma standing by the edge of the roof motioned her over.  
  
It was at that moment that Ranma realized that they were not alone.  
  
Coming out of the shadows were five other people, two women and three men. They all looked to be about as old as Happosai but nowhere near as shriveled.   
  
"So Ranma, we finally meet face-to-face" said a tall black man. "You don't know how long Happosai has waited for someone like you."  
  
"Who in the hell are you and what is going on here?" Ranma retorted.  
  
"I suppose you want an explanation." the black man replied as a statement.  
  
"You could say that." Ranma replied, somewhat tartly, more so than she really wanted.  
  
"Well then sit down, you might as well get comfortable. This may take awhile." Happosai then said. These were the first words he spoke since they left the restaurant.  
  
Ranma was still wary of Happosai and wondering about what the others had to do with anything, but she sat all the same. The rest followed and clustered around Happosai facing Ranma.  
  
Ranma felt like she was being judged. She was unknowingly right.  
  
"You want an explanation, well here goes boy," Happosai said, then in a free wheeling way, " It all started about 50 years ago when I first started looking for a successor..."  
  
*********************  
  
The pseudo-cat staked out he park, it was late but that didn't bother it. It was preparing to take readings on the latest planned attack. The pervious attacks had yielded several good readings from what was now undoubtedly warriors from the Moon Kingdom. However the anomaly that appeared and then just as quickly disappeared two weeks ago has not resurfaced since. The council wanted all possible readings before the reconstruction force invaded.  
  
It found a good vantage point on a low branch midway up a tree, and waited for the signal from the hyper-space uplink that the super trooper was on its way. The pseudo-cat knew that the timetable has been laid out for the reconstruction force. It was a matter of settling a few details.  
  
It rested it head on its fore paws and waited.  
  
********************  
  
Later...  
  
"A test!" Ranma raged, "You mean all the hell you put me through, endangering innocent people, molesting me, and crying over being a killer was a test?!"  
  
"Of course, my boy. How else I'm I going to find a successor?" Happosai said sagely. The others sitting around didn't react one way or another to that statement.  
  
Ranma was stunned for the last hour she sat and listen to the tale that Happosai spun. A tale that touched upon the 7000 year history of Anything Goes (she had know ideal that it went back so far), a man she had, or thought she had killed two weeks ago, was sitting, alive and well - make that not so well judging from the bandages, telling her that all the hell that she had endured under his hands was nothing more than a test.   
  
The universe must be laughing right now.  
  
"Ranma, you must understand, the Anything Goes is not just a martial arts, it is truly a warrior's art. Why, there are things that can be abused and used to subjugate whole countries, cause unrest, and kill countless innocents. That knowledge has to be protected and guarded against any evil that would use it for its own benefit." Happosai was a bit preachy toward the end there, but continued on That's also why I had to know that you were capable of killing. Any warrior who cannot kill when needed is useless in the end. All he'll do is surround himself with deadly enemies that he has spared, and in the end, would destroy him."  
  
Ranma looked at Happosai with half lidded eyes, "You have used and abused the art for your benefit. You stolen from women all over Japan, why those girls from the park will probably have nightmares for years from what you did to them."  
  
"Really? Like they are terrorized ........ now?" Happosai said while - something happened. Ranma ears were then filled with the sound of outraged women. Spinning around while getting in to a defensive stance, she notice a large group of women on the far side of the roof.  
  
Ranma was puzzled, what were all these women doing up on a roof, in the business district and in the middle of the night? But, heeding the frantic screams of the women, Ranma leapt into action and what was the matter. Ranma found on closer inspection a fairly large group of women, that were screaming and swatting at... nothing.  
  
"Ah... excuse me?" she ventured  
  
The woman ignored her and continued their outrage.  
  
"Ah... EXCUSE ME?" Ranma said, this time a little louder.  
  
The group continued as they were, except that they started running around as if trying to evade something and started throwing their purses at the so far unseen assailant.  
  
"HELLO?!" Ranma boomed.  
  
She was still ignored.  
  
"They can't hear you Ranma." Happosai said from behind Ranma.  
  
Ranma turned on Happosai, "What did you do to them, ya old freak?!"  
  
"Why nothing, nothing at all. Watch."  
  
With that, there was - something, again. When she was about to give Happosai a piece of her mind and ask him what the hell was going on, was when she noticed that the women's screaming had stopped. When she turned, the woman were gone. That part of the roof was empty except for Happosai and Ranma.  
  
Turning back to Happosai, "Wha...?"  
  
"Oh, come now Ranma, for someone who has been in contact with someone like Cologne you can't guess?" Happosai said in a slightly sly tone.  
  
Ranma blinked. Then blinked again before venturing, "Pressure points?"  
  
"Give the boy a cigar!" Happosai announced jovially.  
  
"You messed with my head, didn't you?" Ranma hotly said.  
  
"Oh, just a little. Quite effective isn't it?"   
  
"But, how? I don't think you even got close to me."  
  
"I assure you I did, here's proof."  
  
With that Happosai walked over to were Ranma was standing and place her bra gingerly on the ground before her. The bra she just put on before leaving to follow him. She didn't even notice.  
  
"You little freak!" Ranma said angrily while snatching her bra and stuffing it in her front pocket, "What the hell you think you're doing?"  
  
"What do you remember of me giving you the pressure points?" The question caught Ranma off guard.  
  
"Huh?" was her only response she could think of.  
  
"Tell me what you remember." Happosai stated.  
  
"Well, you were standing there talking and... and... how... did you do that?" Ranma stumbled.  
  
"Memory, my boy, memory. All that we are and all that we ever are going to be is the end result of all of our memories." Happosai explained, pausing to take a drag from his pipe he then continued, "Yes, I attacked you with certain pressure points and then removed the memory of the attack with other pressure points. Yes, I - "messed with your head" as you put it, but I have my reasons."  
  
Ranma's stood there thinking of the implications, and it was unsettling.  
  
"The women were implanted figments of your imagination. Happosai continued, Of course, everyone else at the park would have just seen me attack you unprovoked and your following actions would have been justified. So there is no legal worries there on your part."  
  
During this Happosai lead Ranma back to the group and re-seated himself, Ranma did the same.   
  
Ranma got her wits about her by then, and Ranma hotly retorted "And that makes it all right?! How about the people whose lives you put endangered with your Happodaikarin? What about them? I know they were real because I rescued them from your stupidity. What were you planning on doing? Hit some pressure point to make them become undead?" Ranma righteously retorted.   
  
"We were there, ready to step in, throughout the whole thing just in case things got out of hand and to insure no innocents were injured during your test, and the Happodaikarin was mostly noise and smoke." Informed the tall black man who was now sitting on Happosai right.  
  
Ranma stared at him and thought back to the fight at the park, then said, "I don't recall seeing you there, and you're pretty noticeable."  
  
"As noticeable as this?" he asked as he smiled and faded from existence.  
  
Ranma stood back up as if she were shot. Looking around she couldn't see or sense the strange, tall black man that was with Happosai. The others sat around and smiled at Ranma's dilemma. Ranma wondered if it was some kind of joke when a large hand rested on her shoulder.  
  
"EEEK!" was her third most intelligent response as she jumped a good fifteen feet straight up, and back down.  
  
"DON'T DO THAT!" she yelled at the offending party, then quieter, "Ah... how did you do that?"  
  
"There are many secrets of Anything Goes that came be used for good or evil." the black man said evenly, "We must be careful in who we induct into our group, the candidates character must be without question."  
  
"That is way the tests we give are so traumatic." said a one of the white hair women, "We must be sure how you would react in a real-life situation, if a person of questionable character were to gain access to the Library, then there is the possibility of truly terrible things happening."   
  
"Say who are you people?" Ranma finally getting her wits about her.  
  
Happosai stood, and in standing came up to the seated figures shoulders and announced grandly, "These, my boy, are the true masters of Anything Goes. They and myself would like to offer membership into our little group as an apprentice master."  
  
"Yes, we've had our eyes on you for quite sometime, that is until you disappeared from Nerima, then after much searching, we tracked you here, tested you and then found you acceptable." this came from the other white haired women.  
  
"If you accept then Happosai or one of us would turn up time to time to test your progress." the tall black man said, "you would have access to the Library and all its contents. Anything goes for masters such as ourselves is mostly a self taught, self paced kind of thing. As a master though, we would help you learn any difficult techniques you may run across and steer you to strengthen your weaknesses."  
  
"What? No training trips?" Ranma responded.  
  
"A true martial artist can learn anywhere." Happosai answered, "You been teaching yourself, practicing and improving around here just fine - why do you think training trips are still necessary?"  
  
"Okay, what's this Library that all of you keep mentioning?"  
  
"The Library" said the first Older women, "is the sum knowledge of Anything Goes dating back 7000 years to its founding. It is a legacy that all masters and apprentice masters have access to, to learn from, to develop new techniques or combinations of old ones."  
  
"Where is this library? Don't I hafta go there?" Ranma asked.  
  
The six people, no masters looked a ranma and smiled as one.  
  
"No." the black man answered for the group, "It come's to you."  
  
"Show her." one of white haired woman said while the other nodded.  
  
Happosai at that point pulled a small gem from somewhere in his bandages. "Here is your key, I had it made for you in hopes you will accept. Let me use it now to give you a tour of the Library."  
  
Tossing it at Ranma, Ranma reflexively caught it. "Now what?"  
  
Happosai reached for is own gem and now held it in his hand, with the other he held it out to Ranma. "I'll take you there."  
  
Ranma looked at the tiny gem in her hands, it was about the size of a small marble and impossible to tell what color it was because of the reddish tint the light of the sign was giving off. She shrugged her shoulders and reached for Happosai hand.  
  
Things got weird.  
  
When things got un-weird she found herself in a somewhat large room filled with scrolls, books, charts and clay tablets. A few long tables were placed around the room topped with more reading materials. In the corner a bed with an assortment of medical equipment was set up and appeared recently used. She looked around and quietly wondered how in the hell she got there.   
  
"What do you think?" Happosai asked behind her.  
  
Turning to the voice, Ranma asked, "Happosai, how did we get here?"   
  
Happosai smiled, "This place exists in another reality, we can enter this space physically through the gems we create for that purpose. Think of it as a tear in space and time, the gems being a door that allows us to enter and leave here.  
  
Ranma blinked at Happosai and then shrugged her shoulders. Something about space and time buzzed through the back of her head, but she brushed it aside.  
  
"Ranma take a look around, skim some of the items here and tell me what you think."  
  
Ranma did, and was amazed by what she saw. The library had covered every conceivable martial arts that she could imagine and a lot more she never dreamed existed. To say she was impressed would be an understatement. However one thing bothered her.  
  
"Happosai with this much stuff, it would take years to just read it and weeks of practice on every subject to master it all."  
  
"True, mastering it all is almost an impossibility. That is why there are several masters, each exploring different sections of the library. But as far as time here, time really has no meaning here - how long would you say we have been here?"  
  
"About 45 minutes, maybe an hour."  
  
"What would you say if I told you while here, only about 20 to 30 seconds has passed in the real world."  
  
"That's all?"  
  
"At the most. Time works on a different level here, don't ask me how, all I know while were here, hardly any time has passed. When I was "killed" my fellow masters brought me here to treat my injuries and to heal." Happosai said while indicating the bed in the corner surrounded with the medical equipment Ranma noticed earlier.  
  
"How long were you here?"  
  
"About nine days "real world" time."  
  
"What does that work out to here?"  
  
"About three years."  
  
"It took you three years to heal up from a fight?" Ranma asked incredulously.  
  
"Hell yes, I don't know how you did it, the other masters are just as baffled. But, it took me about three years to recover. As you can see" he gestured to his bandages, "I'm still healing up from it. Ranma you destroyed almost every major organs and for all practical purposes you did kill me. We had to use... special techniques to heal me."  
  
"How did you survived to begin with?"  
  
Happosai sighed, he felt they were getting way off track and wanted to bring Ranma around.  
  
"Let's just say that is... a secret." in a way that was vaguely familiar to Ranma.  
  
Ranma blinked at that and shrugged her shoulders. "How do we get out of here?"  
  
"Take my hand."  
  
She did and things got weird again.  
  
When they got un-weird again she found herself in the red light illuminated rooftop with the shrived master and the other five masters.  
  
"Whoa" was her only comment.  
  
"Do you accept?" the tall black man asked.  
  
"I don't know. I just want to get a few things straight in my mind first." the six masters facing Ranma nodded in their consent.  
  
"First Happosai here stealing underwear and acting like a real prev for decades in the hope of drawing out a person who he hopes would be a worthy successor, ..."  
  
The six nodded.  
  
"... and then when finding one, he uses pressure points making me think that Happosai is attacking, terrorizing and abusing innocent people around him, ..."  
  
The six nodded.  
  
"... he pushes me until that I try to kill him or think I killed him, all to see if I could be a good warrior...  
  
The six nodded.  
  
"... and now after healing up for three years in a library that's outside this reality he wants me to join the ranks of the Anything Goes masters as an apprentice master."  
  
The six nodded.  
  
Ranma was in deep thought. After thinking for a long moment and studying the graveled roof she looked up at her hosts.  
  
"Do you know how stupid that sounds?"  
  
The six nodded, then froze and blinked audibly, then face faulted.  
  
*****************  
There was a large flash of light and a distortion of air that settled into the appearance of a whirlpool hanging sideways three feet above the ground. A large mass of a flesh color blob quickly oozed out of the vortex before it faded. The blob then reformed itself into an approximate shape of a human, meaning it had arms and legs, and waited for instructions from the pseudo-cat. It knew it was not expected to survive this and was willing to sacrifice itself in order to bring the Moon kingdom back like its long gone creators would have wanted. It felt no regrets. It detected the pseudo-cat and opened a channel up to it. The plan was simple, create a disturbance and wait for the old Moon Kingdom warriors to show up, then engage them in combat. The pseudo-cat will do the rest by recording and analyzing the battle.  
  
With that it implemented the instructions.  
  
*****************  
  
When they were on their feet again Happosai jumped up and said,  
  
It may seem stupid, but think: how many times has Gemna or Soun stood up to me? Hmmm? How many times has anyone, other that you gone out of their way to prevent me from doing my misdeeds? Hmmm? How many people would face off against me under circumstances that were insurmountable? Hmmm? Time after time I tested you, not just in your use of tactics on the battlefield but you moral character as well as well." Happosai was getting long winded.  
  
"I don't get it, all this so you can judge my character?"  
  
"Along with memory, character is what you are, boy. Take a look at the current "masters", Genma is always talking about honor and never having any and Soun, who pretends to be strong but has no strength of his own. Can you say either one of them have any moral character? I think not! Can you imagine what the those two idiots would do if they had full access to the Library of Anything Goes?"  
  
Ranma thought for what seemed a long moment. Those two idiots would probably do something stupid - like sell everything for a bag of rice. Cheap rice at that.  
  
I really don't know if I want to join your group Happosai, I don't approve of your methods, they seem unnecessarily dangerous and reckless. I'll have to think about it. She finally said.  
  
"You dare say my methods are reckless when you're not any better?!"  
  
"What do you mean?" Ranma said, silently adding "ya old coot" to the end of that to herself.  
  
"You talk about how reckless the things I did to you in order to see if you were a suitable candidate, well I have news for you. You have been a danger and reckless to everyone around you every time you got into a fight with Ryoga, Taro-"  
  
"Hey! I don't start them..." Ranma was cut off by him.  
  
"But you do nothing to end them quick and painlessly to the people around you. How much property damage have you done to other people's buildings? Would you like it if someone you don't even know starts a fight and leaves you and the Yonai's homeless. Would it make you feel better if you knew the person involved could have ended it quickly but didn't and justified it by saying "it's not my fault" or I didn't start it?"  
  
""B... but..."  
  
"And another thing still, you let your enemies get away with things that would eventually lead to your death. Being merciful the first time is one thing, but how many times are you going to be merciful until someone - say like that Kuno boy gets lucky and kills you? Hmmmm? And in the meantime you and him are recklessly tearing up the ward fighting."  
  
"I don't want to hurt..."  
  
"You need to learn to deal with the people that would hurt you or your loved ones, whether it is on an intellectual or physical level, you need to decisively end the matter so you won't have to keep fighting the same battles over and over again, wasting your time and effort. As I said before, you keep sparing your enemies and surrounding yourself with them, and in the end, they would destroy you."  
  
Ranma just stared at him.   
  
I'll let you think, it's only fair enough. But I'll have to take your library access gem from you until you decide, and here, take this. Happosai said exchanging the gem in Ranma's hand for an short stick-like object.  
  
indicating the rod in Ranma's hand, is a summoning rod, when you have decided, break it and one of us will come to see you.  
  
No pressure?  
  
Ranma, I've been searching and waiting for someone like you for about fifty years so I can retire, I can wait longer.  
  
Ranma was impatient, she was tired and wanted to go to bed.  
  
Every master is charged with finding his or her replacement before they are allowed to retire, Happosai explained, it is part of the vow we take before we are granted our title. I just didn't think it would take me so long.  
  
If you tired of doing it, why not just quit? If you're old enough why not just retire? I mean what's stopping you? Ranma aske tiredly.  
  
And break a vow? You know better than that, after all, look how you keep Ryoga's secret, all becaused you promised him you wouldn't say anything. You kept it even after he used your promise dishonorably against you.  
  
Ranma open her eyes a little on that.  
  
Oh, one other thing. Happosai continued.  
  
What now? Ranma asked, in a somewhat subdued tone.  
  
I noticed something was off with you when I was - messing with your head- you have something else going on in your head, and I assure you that this was not my doing.  
  
A quiet moment.  
  
Ranma finally asked.  
  
It seems that you have some sort of memory block in place, darndest thing I've ever seen, too.  
  
Memory block?  
  
Yes, that's what I said, it's a unique one at that, too and very old. But I wouldn't worry too much about it. It seems to be going away on its own.  
  
Going away? Ranma seemed to have mastered short replies all the sudden.  
  
Happosai rolled his eyes [kids] Yes, going away. You'll probably have a lot of unexplained and realistic dreams from those memories leaking through to your subconscious mind first, if you hadn't had them already.  
  
Ranma stood reflecting on the possiblity of having hidden memories floating around her skull. It   
might explain the wierd dreams she had been having, but memories of flying, dancing and blush other things? When would she have had the time to make these memories? She was broke out of her thoughts by the tall black man.  
  
Do you know your way home from here? he asked.  
  
Ranma blinked and looked around before answering, Yeah. I'm not that far, I can take a shortcut through the park.  
  
Very well then, we hope to be hearing from you. he replied.  
  
Ranma didn't answer as she turned and began her roof hopping home.  
  
***************  
  
Ranma was tree hopping through the park to get home as quickly as possible. She knew it was very late, she was tired and wanted to get back to bed. It was at that point she heard a disturbance not to far from where she was.  
  
[Great, what else could happen tonight?]  
  
She detoured and alighted on the top of a tree and watch in fascination as she saw four skimpily clad girls fighting one ugly... whatever. The tickling at the back of her mind increased, as if women in her head was screaming "You know these guys!" and was arguing with another voice that was male yelling back, "No we don't!" Ranma grew to hate these self debates, and she found herself doing a lot lately.  
  
Ranma was watching the fight and wondering why they were yelling out their attacks. She use to do that until she figured that all it was doing was giving you enemy time and warning to prepare for your announced attack. She watched as the girls fought and dance about the ... the thing, whatever it was. The one with the weird hairstyle was doing a great job at dodging and not much at fighting. Ranma sighed, she would have to get involved [Well, so much for getting back to bed].  
  
With that though Ranma leapt from the tree she was in a dashed into a darken corner of the park, not noticing a cat on a lower branch, who was so startled by Ranma's passing that it fell out of the tree and knocked itself out as it hit another branch on the way down.  
  
***************  
  
The battle had been going for a little while and the pseudo-cat was busy recording the events scanning in multi-channel for the maximum data retrieval. Suddenly an unexpected object passed into its field of vision, so close that it upset it from its perch. Falling from the branch the pseudo-cat wondered on the way down why it didn't set its scanners for a proximity alert. Then it hit something and knew no more...  
  
The pseudo-cat would have a headache when it came to the next day.  
  
***************  
  
Ranma, in the shadows of a sizable tree, waited for the moment to strike. Ordinarily she used to leapt in the fray with little or no regard for stealth. This time, something in the back of her mind, the tickling, told her to approach cautiously. Then calling on her will, she charged up her ki lines and prepared an attack that would take the ... whatever down. Ranma kept her ki under control so it would not pass into the visible spectrum and focus on the distance between her hands and the thing as it was pounding one of the girls by lifting her by her leg and repeatedly hammering her into the ground.  
  
[My god, it's going to kill her.] Ranma realized, and readjusted her shot being careful not to injured the girl being battered. [I'll have to take it down in one shot.]  
  
With a brief flash of light, a ball of nearly pure ki raced from ranma's out stretched hands illuminating the ground beneath it as it travel to a point where it connected to the things torso. There was a small explosion as the chest cavity of the thing erupted outward away from the point in impact. It was a clean shot. The thing sank into the ground in a puddle of sludge-like mass.   
  
Gross.  
  
[Did I just kill again?]  
  
[don't worry about it, trust me.]  
  
[But...]  
  
[trust me.]  
  
******************  
  
"Who did that?" Uranus demanded, helping a shaken Neptune onto her feet.  
  
"I did." Ranma replied from the darkness while stepping out of the shadows in to the light of a park lantern. It was a dramatic effect that was ruin by her bra half hanging out of her front pocket.  
  
"Who are you?" Uranus asked playing dumb for she knew who this was.  
  
"I'm Ranma," the red head answered, "and who you all of you?" The tickling sensation in the back of her head went into overdrive, trying desperately to tell ranma something. Something else inside Ranma force it down. Ranma also noticed even though she was looking at the group of girls point blank she couldn't make out any details, they were as faceless as the people in her dreams were.  
  
Her dreams...  
  
"We four are the Sailor Scouts..."  
  
Later...  
  
Ranma thought Happosai was long winded. These Sailor Scouts take the cake.  
  
"We know you're not Ranma" the one who introduced herself as Mars said.  
  
"Whatta mean I'm not Ranma? I know who I am." Ranma retorted, not adding the "you jerk.' that she was thinking about.  
  
"We know your not Ranma, Ranma is a boy, RANKO. So why don't you tell us what happened to the real Ranma." Mars shot back.  
  
Ranma rubbed her temples, she knew Nabiki creating a school record for her girl side was a bad ideal. But it was the only way for her to compete on the Martial Arts Home Economics team. She idly wondered how much money Nabiki made off that competition. Ranma sighed, if she had know that getting involved in a fight would mean answering a bunch of questions she would not have bothered. With a deep breath Ranma began an much abbreviated tale of her life.  
  
"... so you see, this body," Ranma concluded "is the result of a curse spring in China. I was born a boy."   
  
"Riiight" Sailor Mars began as a retort but kept from saying anything more when Ranma finally remember her dream about Uranus and Neptune.  
  
"You two!" Ranma said pointed and the two said scouts, "I know you. I dreamt about you." and then added in a whisper "and can Neptune spank hard." while absently rubbing a phantom pain on her backside where Neptune with her in her dream.  
  
The whisper was quiet, but still just loud enough to be heard.  
  
The results were predictable.  
  
"Eww. Keep me out of your sick dreams." was Neptune's reply, but deep inside was intrigued.  
  
""Listen," Ranma said crossing her arms under her breasts, " I didn't even know you existed until yesterday and I've been having weird dreams for last month and I can't help it if you show up in one. Okay?"  
  
Uranus was distracted by the way Ranma's arms were crossed accentuating her bra-less state. Neptune's noticed this and her right eyebrow twitched. [If this Ranma keeps doing that, then I will spank her! Hmmm, on second thought I think that would be fun. A lot of fun.] that triggered a whole lot of naughty thoughts involving a certain redhead, she then shook her head to clear it and returned to the matter at hand.  
  
"Well, if its a curse, I could try the Moon Healing Activation and see what that does." Sailor Moon thought aloud.  
  
"Will it cure may curse?" Ranma said, but not quite as excitedly as you would expect. [Why should it be important?]  
  
"I don't know, but we can try." Sailor Moon said merrily.  
  
"NO! Don't!" came a loud female voice from behind Sailor Moon.  
  
"EEEEEEEEK!" Sailor Moon screeched than turn on Pluto "Don'tdothatyouscaredtheheckouttame!Whydoyoualwaysdothat,can'tyoucomeinlikenormalpeopledo?"  
  
Something in the way she talked reminded Ranma of someone, but for the life of her she couldn't figure put a finger on who.  
  
"I am sorry but I can't let you undo over three years of work." Pluto stated to Moon, momentarily forgetting a certain someone was nearby, "Ranma must stay as she is."  
  
"You mean her story is true?" Mars exclaimed.  
  
Pluto nodded. Something clicked in Ranma, as the tickling in her head notched up a bit.  
  
"Wait a minute. What did you mean about "three years of work"?" Ranma's suspicions were aroused along with the tickling in her mind that seem to be putting two-and-two together for her.  
  
[Damn it!] Pluto berated herself [I was so concern about stopping Moon from healing Ranma I forgot she was here.]  
  
Pluto sighed, trying to figure away out of her snafu. She decided that Ranma was probably far enough along to be told part of the truth. Hopefully she would except it, if not... well Pluto would probably be in a lot of pain.  
  
"Ranma you are the reincarnated warrior Sailor Sun. We need you in a coming fight as Sailor Sun, which means you had to be female."  
  
"You mean you were responsible for me getting my curse." Ranma said coldly, as anger slowly building inside her, the strange tickling adding more things up for her.  
  
"Indirectly, yes" Pluto continued, "But that was mostly Genma's doing." Of course Pluto decided against telling Ranma all about the little extra pushing she did in Ranma's life to get her to end up in the "spring of the drown girl".  
  
"You did this to me, didn't you?" Ranma asked in a dangerous tone, the tickling putting the pieces together making a picture that Ranma did not like.  
  
"You are needed, your birth form would have made you useless to us."  
  
"Useless? Useless?! You could have asked dammit! What the hell gave you the right to mess around in my life? Did you enjoy destroying me? Who in the hell do you think you are?" Ranma shouted, trying to control her anger - and slowly losing.  
  
"I am Sailor Pluto guardian of the Gates of Time." Pluto stated in an even voice, "You are Sailor Sun, Senshi of the Nexus of Time and Space."  
  
Several thoughts ran through Ranma's mind at that moment. First was she was happy as a girl and had decided to stay that way, but was it really her decision or one that she was lead to and forced into unknowingly. Manipulated that what was it. Manipulated. Ranma wondered if how she thought and felt was really her thoughts and feelings, or was everything nothing more than someone else's manipulations making her believe they were real? What would her life be like if she had a choice? A choice taken from her by the very person before her. Her life. Stolen. Stolen by her.  
  
The picture was completed in Ranma's mind and she was definitely pissed.  
  
"I'm not the Senshi of anything! You stole my life you... you... BITCH!"  
  
Faster that any of the Scouts could see Ranma disappeared from where she was standing and with a loud crack Pluto sailed across thirty feet before being stopped by a tree. Pluto's Garnet Rod spun on its axis before falling to earth. Ranma now stood where Pluto was moments before with her arm outstretched hand in a fist. Ranma was breathing heavily from the emotion of the situation, not from the physical exertion. It took a moment for the other Scouts to register a fact:  
  
Sailor Pluto just got clocked.  
  
Ranma stood there still breathing heavily. She then turned to Sailor Moon just as Pluto was beginning to pick herself off the ground, rubbing her jaw.   
  
"Cure me."  
  
[Why?]   
  
[because i want a choice.]   
  
[What does...]  
  
"No, please." Sailor Pluto, now on her feet, said as her jaw was starting to swell a bit.  
  
"Look, I am not one of you." Ranma retorted loudly, Even if I was, I should have been given a choice.  
  
"I assure you that you are, you are Sailor Sun. The last Senshi created." Her jaw hurting with each word.  
  
"Look, if I can prove that I'm not this Sailor Sun will you at least promise to unlock my curse?"  
  
[Why is this so important all the sudden?]  
  
[because she stole your life - take it back.]  
  
[But is it really that important if your happy?]  
  
Ranma was broke from her self debate by Mars.  
  
"Sounds reasonable."  
  
"Okay," Pluto said, "As sailor Sun you don't need a henshin stick like the rest of us to transform, all you have to do is think about transforming and think about or speak your transformation phrase."  
  
"My transformation phrase?" Ranma said just as the a dreamlike phrase floated from the tickling and through the forefront of her mind, she grasped it and held it.  
  
"Yes" Pluto said, still rubbing her jaw - it was going to hurt in the morning. A lot. "You should know it instinctively, just think of it and it will come to you."  
  
"This is as stupid as the meeting I just through with." sigh "Okay, if that is what it is going to take." Ranma took a deep breath and cleared her mind.  
  
"Solar Crystal Activation, make up."  
  
The five scouts where in shock, especially Sailor Pluto over what happened next.  
  
Nothing.  
_____________________  
  



	8. Juuban part 6

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
I don't own any of these characters or situations, this is done purely for fun, and so far its been fun.  
__________________  
  
Juuban part 6  
  
****************  
  
"Can I have my cure now?"  
  
[Dammit, why is this important now, I like the way I am.]  
  
[it's a matter of free choice.]  
  
"Wait, I don't understand, you're Sailor Sun. I know it. How ..." Pluto said, becoming a little unnerved at this turn of events and forgetting her sore jaw.  
  
Ranma interrupted angrily, "Look lady, I don't know what your problem is. I just proved to you I was who I said I was, or in this case who I wasn't." Ranma took a breath, "You put me through three years of hell for nothing, now give me of my cure. Now."  
  
Sailor Moon looked unsure, a promise was a promise. She summoned her Crescent Moon Wand and prepared her 'attack'. After a brief light show in which the wand was summoned, Moon in a dramatic way, so much so, that it made Ranma cringe inside, announced,  
  
"Moon Healing Activation!"  
  
Ranma felt the magical energy flow around her, then in her minds eye see saw something, something she hadn't seem before. It was a crystal that she new instinctively represented her soul with something inside of it, magic? It was this something that protected Ranma from most of the healing energies that Moon was flowing through her. However Ranma notice something did change, something like a - hoop that had encircled the crystal moved and turned side ways. Then the energies from Moon stopped.  
  
Ranma dismissed the crystal in her mind but kept in available for some reason she could not fathom. She also noticed she was still a she.  
  
"I'm sorry I guess it just didn't work." Sailor Moon said apologetically, while in the background Pluto breathed a sigh of relief.  
  
"That's all right," Ranma said off handily, feeling strangely and very relieved that it failed, "I think something was going on at my end."  
  
Then her eyes narrowed at Pluto.  
  
"You stay outta my life, if I suspect, SUSPECT that you have done anything else to me after today. I will hunt you down and hurt you. Badly." Ranma's tone brook no argument.  
  
With that Ranma turned, but not before one last look at Neptune and Uranus that thrilled her spine for some reason, then hopped onto a tree limb and was gone.  
  
**************  
  
Ranma finally made her way home, entering the living room that doubled as her sleeping quarters through the window and sighed, she was tired and felt more than a little put upon. Looking at the time she realized that it was later than she expected, more more like earlier, as in 3 A.M. earlier. [Why does all the weird stuff have to happen to me?] Without further thought, Ranma collapsed on her futon and thanked whoever was in charge at that moment that tomorrow wasn't a school day and quickly drifted off to sleep.  
  
****************  
  
She was crying and in a great deal of pain.   
  
Gone, all gone.   
  
Those were the only thoughts that repeated in her mind at first. There were others, but in the first few hours of shock, they were the only ones that mattered.  
  
Why did they hold me back? Why wasn't I allow to stop this? Why? Oh Serenity, why?  
  
Her pain increased. Sobs escaped her being. It was pain. Emotional pain. Physical pain she could deal with, she has taught to deal with it in the past through her training and missions for the queen. Now it was all dust, nothing was left.  
  
Nothing but duty.  
  
"Seal them away." were her last orders, Sailor Sun would do it.  
  
She flew in space toward a vortex looking thing and sense what she had to do. She didn't mind, she didn't care. She would seal the Negaverse away from this universe, hopefully forever.  
  
She entered the wormhole, and stopped midway through, and concentrated. Gathering her energies, she prepared herself, for she knew there was no way to survive this. Nor did she want to. Feeling the fabric of her universe and those of the Negaverse on the other side of the wormhole she pulled energy from both sides where it met in a warp bubble that she formed within her body. The energies were collecting at a horrific rate, one solar mass was quickly reached and surpassed, as was two, three..  
  
[Twenty,] Sailor Sun though [twenty will do it.]  
  
Five...  
  
[Oh Serenity, why?]  
  
Ten...  
  
[Why did you hold me back?]  
  
Fifteen...  
  
[Why didn't I just do it? I could have saved everyone.]  
  
Sixteen...  
  
[I swear in any of my next lives...]  
  
Seventeen...  
  
[... I will not let this happen again...]  
  
Eighteen...  
  
[... I swear this on the memory of Serenity...]  
  
Nineteen...  
  
[... and the Moon Kingdom.]  
  
Twenty.  
  
She knew nothing more.  
  
*****************  
  
Ranma awoke, tears streaming from her eyes.  
  
[Oh Serenity, why?] was her first thought of the day.  
  
Ranma wiped her tears and proceeded into her morning routine. She rolled her futon with care all the while trying to contain the emotions within her. Emotions from a dream that threatened to overpower her as she leaned her back against a wall and stifled back a sob. Controlling herself Ranma made her way to the bathe, in spite of the lateness that she went to bed, she was still up early as was her habit. Upon entering the bath she shucked her clothes and wash her face with cold water from the sink, trying to wash the tears out of her eyes. They washed out, but the emotions that brought them there were still in full force. [Dammit, these can't be dreams.] Ranma's thought back to last night, back to what that scout, Pluto said and shook her head.   
  
[No. No way. Besides I did prove it last night that I was not this Sailor Sun.]  
  
[but your knew the words, only Sailor Sun would know them]  
  
[Then why didn't I changed... it always worked... before? Huh?"  
  
[see, parts of you are fighting this and holding you back]  
  
[What the hell does that mean?]  
  
[it means that parts of you are trying to prevent you from changing]  
  
[I don't think so...]  
  
[what about the dream?]  
  
[...]  
  
[you felt the pain, you were there, you know your were. why fight it?]  
  
[I don't even know why I thinking about this, it was a ... dream, wasn't it?]  
  
[not so sure are you now]  
  
[I'm not sure of anything right now]  
  
Ranma sighed heavily, it seems that her life was forever destined to be a weird magnet. She upended the bucket of warm water over her and proceeded to wash his body. His body? Waitaminute. Ranma bolted up from the stool that he was sitting on an took a good look at himself. Himself. A small part of Ranma was dancing around in joy, the vast majority was horrified.  
  
[Oh god, I really didn't want this!] a female voice in her head spoke for the majority.  
  
[we sure the hell did. it's about damn time i say] a tiny male voice shot back  
  
[No! NO! no, no, no, no, no, no, no!]  
  
[yes!]  
  
[I'm happy as a girl! Oh, what in the hell possessed me to want to change that?]  
  
[it's because Pluto took your choice from you. you didn't really know what you wanted - and now you know less.] a third voice stated calmly.  
  
[I gotta change back! I gotta change back! I can't stand going back to being half of something all the time.]  
  
[try!] the male one said.  
  
[NO!]  
  
With that thought Ranma splashed herself with cold water from the spigot and reverted back into her female form.  
  
[Thank god!]  
  
[... until you get hit with warm water again. then what are you going to do?] sarcastically said the male voice.  
  
Ranma sat there and pondered. What is she going to do. For so long it didn't matter if she was a boy or girl on the streets and now that she can change, then it hit her... when did she started looking at her birth form as a curse?  
  
[I don't know.]  
  
Thinking back to last night, skipping over the part with Happosai and his pack of loons, she scrutinized the part where Moon did her healing bit. A crystal. Ranma remembered seeing a crystal in her minds eye. Closing her eyes she pictured it there, floating in space glowing brightly... her soul? There was something else, something inside of it that she should touch but knew she didn't for some reason, something was holding her back. Beside the crystal was a hoop like object.  
  
[That's the thing I saw being moved during that healing thingy Moon did.]  
  
Mentally picturing grabbing the hoop, she maneuvered it over the crystal where in was originally and left it there. [That's where it was.] Ranma then, hesitantly filled a bucket with warm water and then doused herself with it.  
  
She didn't change.  
  
She broke into a big grin, only to have it stolen by a thought from the male voice.  
  
[i wonder if it works the other way?]  
  
Ranma sighed. She had to know.  
  
Reverting to her male state, he sought out the crystal within him. He could see it, but couldn't see whatever in was inside the crystal he saw as a she and that the hoop was missing all together. Changing back, see check it again and seeing everything as it was before, brought the hoop down upon the crystal, locking herself into her female from.  
  
[Guess it only works when I'm a girl.] Ranma sighed again, this time with a strange relief. She finished her bath and dressed. It was Sunday and she decided after the events of last night she would take it easy, which translated into just working out for one hour instead of the usual three.   
  
***************  
  
All during her workout she was too distracted, too much has happened in the last 24 hours, some good and some not so good. First was adopted into the Yonai clan, which was good, no not good, great she corrected. Then Happosai turns up alive after healing up for three years wanting her to join his group of masters so he could retire. That was a mixed bag, good that she felt less guilty about killing him, and only so-so about his offer. Then she meets up with the Senshi who claims that she was one of them and basically finds out that the reason she got cursed in the first place was because of Pluto. That pissed her off thinking about that, so much so that Ranma missed a landing and ended up on her rear.  
  
"Ranma, is there anything wrong?" Akiko asked, concerned that this was the first time she had seen Ranma fall like that.  
  
"Good morning Granny, " Ranma replied, dusting her rear, "No, nothing is wrong, I think."  
  
"You think?' raising a eyebrow above one of her piercing hazel eyes.  
  
"Yes! No." then quieter, "maybe."   
  
"Would you like to talk about it?" Akiko inquired.  
  
Ranma learned, since staying here, that talking about a problem does help. Especially if the person you are talking to actually cares about you. Ranma thought about it and made her decision.  
  
"I would love to talk about it... but, just not right now. I'll think I'll go for a walk and figure somethings out first.  
  
Okay dear, but don't be afraid to come and talk with me about it when you're ready." Then she added with a smile, "After all, we're all family now."  
  
Ranma smiled back at that comment and in-spite herself hugged the older women.  
  
*******************  
As Ranma went for a morning stroll toward the park , several thoughts ran thru Ranma's head. None of them good. Doubts filled her from her time on the street, it didn't matter to her then if she was a boy or a girl, now she prefers being a girl, was that the right choice? Then there's Pluto screwing in her life. Manipulating and narrowing her choices down so she could only have that one.  
Then there is Happosai screwing with her mind, she didn't know what was real anymore.  
  
And what about her dreams? She had spoken to Michiko about her dreams many times, and Ranma no longer thought that her dreams were delayed stress from her time on the streets as Michiko suggested, but something else. Ranma was afraid of that train of thought, because if it lead to where she thought it lead, then that would mean what Sailor Pluto had said last night was true. And every time she thought about it the tickling in the back of her head would increase.   
  
Ranma sighed, and decided not to thing about this anymore until she reached the park.  
  
Ramna sat on the soft grass by a small lake in the park, trying to come to terms with how she was feeling. Being early in the morning there was hardly anyone around to disturb her, and that was fine with her as she sat and thought. She wasn't too sure of anything right now except for two things: Happosai messed with her head and Pluto messed with her life. She was starting to feel like she didn't know what was real or what wasn't real, with that another internal debate began:  
  
[Happosai made me think there were people in danger, it was so real.]  
  
[what's real?]  
  
[What's real? Real is ... real.]  
  
[you don't know that anymore, for all you know we could be in the Amazon village and you just think your in Juuban.]  
  
[That's crazy! Cologne would want me male to 'stud' with Shampoo, she wouldn't...]  
  
[she just wants you. she always said you were the best in your generation. imagine that, a mere male being the best. I think she would keep you as a girl so you could fight along side their warriors against the musk and make strong little Amazon babies.]  
  
[But what about this morning? I changed... ]  
  
[what about this morning? maybe she'll figure she'll get more bang for the buck. you siring kids and bearing them as well. covering her bases, that what.]  
  
[that's crazy! how would she know I would go along with anything like that?]  
  
[you can't lie to yourself - you know your starting to be attracted to guys now, as well as girls, don't deny it. your what they say "swinging both ways"... and besides if this isn't real it would make it easier to get you to do what they want.]  
  
[Yeah, but I only "swing both ways" when I'm a girl, or at least I think I do. This morning when I changed I was so ... revolted. I don't think I could go back to being a guy even part-time anymore.]  
  
[Try!] said a small male voice in her head.  
  
[Great, now I'm having a three-way conversation now.]  
  
[You have to try! That's how you were suppose to be.]  
  
[let's handle one thing at a time, put that issue aside until we deal with this one first.]  
  
[ ... ]  
  
[What about what happened last night.]  
  
[maybe last night was your subconscious trying to tell you something. cologne was mentioned by name along with pressure points]  
  
[... true...]  
  
[and how about that thing with pluto, huh? a female warrior, a female warrior that has been manipulating your life for the last three years. maybe something is trying to tell you something.]  
  
In spite of the coolness of the morning Ranma started to sweat. She had just thought of some very unpleasant ideals and was unnerved where this train of though was taking her. Frustrated, and a little frighten she pounded a fist into the ground beside her, unknown to her a ripple in the fabric of space traveled downward and set off a series of events deep in the Earth that caused a small earthquake that rattled windows all over Tokyo. The slight tremor went unnoticed by her and many as she shook her head and mentally pressed forward.  
  
[No! I can't start thinking this way. If I start questioning everything around me I might as well be dead. I got to trust something - so I'll have to believe this is all real until I know for sure otherwise.]  
  
[maybe... what about the block on your memory Happosai mentioned last night. what are you going to do about it?]  
  
[What can I do?]  
  
[hmmmm....]  
  
[I could summon Happosai, and have him have a closer look at it.]  
  
[why the hell would you want him anywhere near your head after what he did?]  
  
[He is the one who pointed it out to me, if there is something going on, maybe he can help me.]  
  
[i don't know about this...]  
  
[I got to try something or I'll go insane.]  
  
[i think you're already there.]  
  
On that, Ranma sat quietly for a moment not thinking of anything.  
  
[I'm going to call him.]  
  
[i still think it's a bad ideal]  
  
[You got any better ones?]  
  
[ ... ]  
  
[Thought not.]  
  
Fishing through her pocket Ranma extracted the rod that Happosai gave her the night before. Studying it for the first time she noted it was small, about an inch and a half long and had a glassy like look and feel about it. Taking it in her hands, she held her breath and broke it. The rod broke with a slight popping sound, not the snap she was expecting. Ranma sighed, and waited.  
  
*******  
  
It was not a long wait as Happosai walked, not bounded, but walked up to Ranma who was still seated by the lake looking at it. He wore a nice three-piece suit, a wide brim hat and very nice shoes. Ranma raised an eyebrow at his approach, but did not comment about his attire. She had more important things on her mind.  
  
"Have you decided?" Happosai greeted Ranma  
  
"About your offer? No. I been having too much else going on to think about that. I want to talk to you about what you said last night, about the memory block." Ranma getting to the point.  
  
"Oh, that." Happosai deflated a bit, "I don't know why you're so worried about that. It will go away by itself."  
  
"I want to know if anyone else has been messing with my head, okay? I didn't want to, but I called you because you're the only one I could remotely think of that can help me."  
  
"Very well." sigh, "Let's have a look."  
  
Ranma sat there while Happosai went behind and started probing her head. Ranma felt the tiny fingers of Happosai touch here, poke there and flow a finger up from the top of her head to the base of her skull. While doing this he would make such comments as "Hmmm", "this is unusual", "what's this" and "interesting". It was all starting to get on Ranma's nerves.  
  
After awhile he stopped and sat down beside her cross legged. His face the very picture of concentration. Ranma wanted to, be restrained herself from asking anything. A moment later Happosai looked up at Ranma and said, "It's the dardest thing. I really can't make heads or tails of it."  
  
"Then you can't help me?"  
  
"I didn't say that, I would like to call master Charles, he is better at this than I am."  
  
"Master Charles?"  
  
"The tall African-American fellow you met last night. He is a master of pressure point techniques and dandy for finding out what's going on in peoples head, I suspect he's a bit empathic. If he can't tell you, my boy, no one can."  
  
"Ah... okay."  
  
With that Happosai whipped out a... cell phone and punched a few buttons and talked briefly to who ever picked up on the other end. Ranma raised an eye to that.  
  
Happosai noticed Ranma's look, "What? I can't use modern technology? He'll be here in a few minutes." Happosai said while closing the phone and putting back in his suit pocket.   
  
They waited in silence, Ranma wondering for her part, if she did the right thing.  
  
[No. Can't start second guessing myself now.] with that thought, she reaffirmed to herself.  
  
After a bit a tall, well dressed black man strolled up to the pair and address them both in english, Happosai answered him back in english. Ranma blinked at that, and the man named Charles switched languages and began talking in unaccented Japanese.  
  
"Sorry about that, I forgot. My name is Charles and I know who you are, Ranma. Happosai says here you would like me to look at what he discovered about you last night."  
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
"Very well then, let us find a bench or something for you to sit on and I to stand behind. You may like the ground, but would rather not get my clothes dirty."   
  
The trio moved away from the lake further up a slight incline before finding an unoccupied bench beneath a cluster of trees. Ranma seated herself and the bench while Charles moved around to stand behind her.  
  
"I will not do anything to you. You have my word of honor on that however, I must ask, how deeply do you want me to probe?" Charles asked.  
  
"What do you mean?" Ranma inquired.  
  
"It' s just that if I do a deep probe of the memory block, I may knock it loose, and I couldn't tell you what would happen then. If I just do a superficial one, than I may not be able to tell you any more than what Happosai has told you already. You would gain no more useful information than you already have." Charles answered in a very patient and pleasant voice.  
  
"Oh." Ranma thought about it, "How about starting, ah... superficial and see how it goes. If you have to probe deeper we can discuss it then."  
  
"Very well." Charles said and with that put his large hands on either side of Ranma's head, closed his eyes and concentrated.  
  
Ranma felt something weird going on, there were swirling visions of dancing, fighting, training and meeting people she never met before but somehow knew. There was a slight feeling of vertigo, enough to make her reach out for the arm of the bench to steady herself. Ranma was about to say something when it all stopped.  
  
"You are right, Happosai" Charles said in his unaccented Japanese, "this is very curious and doesn't make any sense."  
  
Ranma, with a sudden imaginative thought of being among the Amazon's, panicked for just a moment before reining it in.  
  
"What? What did you find out?" She asked while trying to keep her voice as even as possible, and failing.  
  
"Ranma, " Charles said while putting a comforting hand on her shoulder, "There is nothing to be frighten of. It is just this memory block is something I have never seen before, I may not be able to tell you more than Happosai has."  
  
"Well, what can you tell me?"  
  
"Well it is slowly breaking up, as Happosai said last night you will probably be experiencing some realistic and unusual dreams. That is the first thing that happens when a memory block is breaking up, the memories slip into the subconscious mind and manifests themselves as dreams. I suspect you are already having dreams?"  
  
Ranma nodded, Charles continued.  
  
You are also probably feeling a odd sensation, like a stirring or fluttering in your head from time to time. This is psychological manifestation of the memory block, maybe you should examine it by yourself sometime soon.  
  
Ranma thought, then nodded for Charles to continue.  
  
"The second thing I can tell you that it is effecting a large part of your long term memory. In other words a great deal of your memories has been suppressed. That is the most interesting thing, I would say the amount is even greater than any one person could have in a normal life-span."  
  
"How long?" Ranma ventured.  
  
The master known as Charles thought deeply about the question before answering. "I would say to accumulate the mass of memory I am detecting, you have well over a thousand years of memory tucked in there."  
  
Ranma blinked, then "How can that be, I'm only 16 years old?!"  
  
"I'm just telling you what I found Ranma." Charles said patiently, "Not, if I could explain it."  
  
Sigh, "Okay, sorry. Please go on."  
  
"Now when someone's mind has been altered by pressure points or other means it leaves a trail. I found Happosai work easily enough and I assure you that you are not suffering from any of his work now or will in the future. This blockage shows no signs of someone ever tampering there, even though it is way too deep and carefully placed there would have been some traces left of the actual adjustment."  
  
Ranma thought about that and asked, "How can you be sure?"  
  
"Well Ranma, the ki lines in and around the memory block are consistent with your natural ones and are undisturbed.  
  
"What does that mean?"  
  
"Well, there are two possible conclusions, one someone with greater knowledge of ki manipulation and pressure points has done this to you, leaving no trace or the only other possibility is...  
  
Ranma just stared at him at this point.  
  
"Ranma," Charles continued, "I fear the only other way you could have such a blockage in this way, is if you were born with it."  
  
********  
  
Ranma thanked Happosai and Charles for their time and decided against a deeper probe for the moment. Before parting Happosai gave Ranma another summoning rod before him and Charles went on their way. She was walking around the park and was thinking deeply about the revelations. And the tickling, she almost forgot. It's been there for so long now that she hardly even acknowledged that it was there anymore, maybe the time has finally come to have a close look at it.  
  
With that, she concentrated on that spot of her conscience and mentally turned it over in her head. The results were as she feared, exactly as she expected.  
  
A flood of thoughts, images, and... and... memories assaulted Ranma's mind. So fast that it almost brought her to her knees. Ranma broke from her mental self exam and breathed hard and she steadied herself against a tree.  
  
[Whoa. What in the hell was that.]  
  
_Everything you were, and am._  
  
[Oh great, another self debate.]  
  
_This is not something you can fight with your fists, you must solve this from within.  
_  
[You mean I have to learn to deal with the memories of some long dead Senshi in my head?]  
  
_Those memories are yours, not anyone else's... why else would you have them?  
_  
[How do I know that? With all the weird things that have happened to me, not to mention the mind altering pressure points that are out there, how do I know its real?]  
  
_You can think of more reasons to avoid the truth....  
_  
[Hey! I'm not avoiding anything. It's just that if I not sure what is the truth and what's real. How do I know that this is not all some plot by that manipulative bitch?]  
  
_That's not it, but if you start to question every little thing that has happened in the past you won't accept anything as being true.  
_  
[I just want what's real!]  
  
_Does it look or feel unreal to you?  
_  
[No. But, hey! If it is real, why didn't I change last night when I said that phrase?] Ranma thought that last one rather smugly.  
  
_Because your afraid, the very small part of you that fear this and is holding the greater part of you back. that is the part you must deal with.  
_  
[I ain't afraid... much. So, I have a "small part" that's afraid - how do I know that small part isn't wrong?]  
  
_That is the very doubt that is holding you back, getting in your way and stopping you from becoming what you really are.  
_  
[Oh yeah? And what is that?]  
  
_Sailor Sun.  
_  
[More Sailor crap again.]  
  
_Why do you fear it?  
_  
[I don't fear it, I just... I don't know.]  
  
_Let's find a bench somewhere and look at your soul.  
_  
[My soul?]  
  
_Bench first, soul later.  
_  
Ranma sighed, she was really hating these "self debate" sessions that she had been having lately. Mainly because it made her think of somethings she didn't want to think about. But she realized that she couldn't avoid it or go around it, she would have to go through it.  
  
She soon located in a secluded part of the part a bench under a different cluster of trees and sat upon it. Looking about she noticed for the first time how beautiful the morning was. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the air was cool and crisp from the approaching fall. Ranma breath the refreshing air in deeply before taking her mental debate up again.  
  
[Okay, we're going to look at my soul.]  
  
_Yes, the Crystal thing is a representation of your soul, just think about it and it will brought up.  
_  
Ranma once again found her center and was gazing at the Crystal in her mindscape.  
  
[Okay what are we looking for?]  
  
_See! see the magic that is within your very soul? it is right there glowing from within.  
_  
Ranma looked closer at the crystal that was her soul then she looked closer at what was inside of it. Magic. Magic from within, bounded to her soul, she reached out to touch it, and was stopped. Looking at the mental image of her arm she noticed a hand restraining it, she followed the hand up the arm and came face to face with - himself.  
  
____________________  
  
  



	9. Juuban part 7

Hope everyone likes this one, or at least tolerates it.  
  
Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
I don't own any of these characters or situations  
__________________  
  
Juuban part 7  
  
*****************  
  
Inside her own mind, a female Ranma stared at the male version of herself, and gapped as her male version shifted halfway to mirror her female half before shifting back to male. The male Ranma released her arm and stood back from her.  
  
"Who in the hell are you?"  
  
"I'm you, or parts of you." the male version of herself answered.  
  
"What the hell are you talking about? I'm me."  
  
"I am what and who you think should have been, if Pluto didn't screw with our life, plus other things."  
  
"What's it! I'm officially insane now." Ranma groaned, head in hand.  
  
_"You are not insane - yet, but if you do not deal with this problem you soon will be." _a calm voice from nowhere spoke.  
_  
_"What do you mean will be? Does a sane person go through this?" Ranma retorted angrily at the voice, then quieter "And who and the heck are you?"  
  
_"I am you. I am the memory of your past life, the one's you have been remembering through dreams."  
_  
"That is a past that is dead and gone - this is the here and now. we were meant to be born, live and die a man not this." the male Ranma said while gesturing at Ranma female form.  
  
"Hey watch it buddy! I happen to like the way I am, thank you very much, and if you think I'm going back to putting up with being half of anything, you're dead wrong." Ranma replied, hands on hips, she then address the voice, "Um... how can a memory talk?"  
  
_"I am a manifestation of that part of your personality."  
_  
"Doesn't matter what you were, all that matters is we had our life stolen from us. We must take it back, and get revenge on those who have tried to steal it."  
  
"What?"  
  
"To must choose what you are going to do. Try to live in the dead past or take control of your life and live in the here and now."  
  
"I already told you, I'm not going back to being half of something. So just give it up."  
  
"No."  
  
Ranma blinked, then said, "What do you mean "No", I already told -"  
  
"You told me, but you're not sure yourself, if you were we wouldn't be having this conversation." the male Ranma said matter of fact manner.  
  
"Wha...?"  
  
_"This is a mental representation of the combined remnants of the doubt, fear, paranoia and other negative aspects of your personality within you that is preventing you from becoming whole.  
_  
"That's crazy! Well maybe not so crazy, " then she muttered, "not as crazy as everything else that has happened to me. But, if I have already decided -"  
  
_"But you have your doubts, doubts that is manifesting itself and combining with other facets of your personality. It is fortunate that you chosen a male version of former yourself to represent the negative aspects of your personality, but that as you saw, is slowly changing.  
  
_Why is that?  
_  
Because if you had chosen a female version to represent your negative parts of you personality it would then have immediate access to Sailor Sun's power, it is however, trying to adapt so to gain access to that power... for vengeance.  
  
_"Then what I'm I?" Ranma asked.  
  
_"You are the dominate personality that has been formed by being broken and then built over the last half year. You are the one that must tie everything together to become whole."  
  
_"So you're my doubts?" Ranma asked of the male Ranma.  
  
"I am everything you think you should have been, combined with your doubts, fear, mistrust and paranoia built up over the time since being kicked out into the streets and more recent events with Happosai and Pluto." the male version explained.  
  
"What would you do if you were to ever be dominate?"  
  
"I would take what power I can get my hand's on - the male version eyed the heart of the crystal and just for a split second, looked like a female Ranma's twin before reverting to the male form, -and punish those that have wronged me and were out to get me. Pops, the Tendo's, Sailor Pluto, the old ghoul, Ryoga-"  
  
"Why? We can't go around "punishing" people we don't like - "  
  
"Like you did with Happosai." male Ranma said flatly.  
  
"That's different, I thought he was endangering people. I was defending them like I would defend anyone else!" Ranma said.  
  
"Anyone?" the male one asked with a smirk on his face.  
  
Ranma looked at the smirking male version of herself and said, "If I use to look anywhere near as cocky as you do now, it's a wonder that more people weren't out to kill me."  
  
The male Ranma responding by smirking even bigger.  
  
Female Ranma sighed, and looked up implored, "Why me? Why does this stuff happen to me?"  
  
_"It is your birthright, the power to be Sailor Sun is bounded to your soul, passed on life time to life time. It has always been with you, always - you just never became aware of it because your were male. The more you accepted being female the more "in tune" you became with your memories and your true self."  
_  
"But, I still like girls!" Ranma exclaimed.  
  
_"You can still be a girl and be bisexual. You were before, you will naturally start to be again."  
  
_ Then suddenly a image of a memory circle visually through the mindscape, Ranma wide eye squeaked,   
  
_You must accept your past in order to move ahead.  
_  
"How would I do that?" Ranma asked, shaking the visual out of her head.  
  
_"Slowly and carefully, if you try to go too fast you could harm yourself. You have been alive for only 16 years in this life, but as Sailor Sun it was nearly 1500 years. To try to assimilate it all of the memories at once would be like trying to fit 10 lbs of rice in a half pound bag."  
_  
"1500 years? I lived that long?"  
  
_"Yes, before your death. The only one that has lived longer is Pluto."  
_  
"She's the one that did this to us." The male Ranma interjected, "She should be punished as well."  
  
"Enough with the punishment crap." Ranma snorted at her male self before turning her attention back to the faceless voice. "What do I have to do?"  
  
_"Touch the heart of the crystal, the magic within this will free you enough to become Sailor Sun. Your memories of your past will slowly come to you over time- don't try to rush them. Let them continue to come as they have been."  
_  
"If I do, what will happen to him?" Ranma indicating the male one with a jerk of her head.  
  
_"He will become part of your memory of this life like everything else you have experienced, added to the greater whole."  
_  
"But I should be the whole, none of you have any right to claim anything." the male interjected.  
  
Ranma ignored him and asked,What would happen to me?  
  
_I am not sure, but as the dominate personality not much - maybe.  
_  
There was a long silence.  
  
"There is a third choice." Ranma announced abruptly ending the silence.  
  
_"What is that?"_ replied the voice.  
  
"I could forget about the both of you and live just like I am." Ranma said firmly to her "other selves".  
  
_"That would be ill advised."_  
  
"No! You can't do that, want about me, what about pay back?" the male one said almost pleading.  
  
"Who's to stop me? You already said I was the dominate personality, why shouldn't I?" Ranma asked.  
  
_"Because, even though you are the dominate personality now doesn't mean you will always be. You're not complete. A mind divided cannot stand and will eventually fall. We must be joined or we will fall into insanity."  
_  
"And you must punished those who have hurt you." the male version interjected.  
  
Ranma rolled her eyes, won't this guy just give up on the punishment thing? Ranma was getting a headache - figuratively and literally - over the entire affair.  
  
"Okay, let me see if I got this all straight," Ranma said having a strange, and very strong case of deja vu, "first I am a reincarnation of Sailor Sun who died a hell'va long time ago and Pluto arrange it for me to fall in the 'spring of the drown girl' so I could remember being Sailor Sun and fight some enemy that she thinks is coming,...  
  
The male Ranma nodded as the voice stated "Correct."  
  
"... and then on top of that I now I have leftover pieces of my former self combined with all my doubts and fears and other negative junk holding me back who looks like my old male self... "  
  
The male Ranma nodded as the voice stated "Correct."  
  
"... who would like to be the one in charge so he can go out and punish everyone who he thinks done me wrong, not that it matters anymore... "  
  
The male Ranma nodded as the voice stated "Correct."  
  
"... and now I may go insane unless I can come to terms with this fact and embrace 1500 years of memories from a past life, but not too fast or I'll go insane anyway, as if I'm not that already..."  
  
The male Ranma nodded as the voice stated "Correct."  
  
".. and now all I have to do is to touch the magic within the crystal that is my soul and it would allow me to become Sailor Sun and then I'll begin to become psychologically whole, but I might cease being who I am now."  
  
The male Ranma nodded as the voice stated "Correct."  
  
Ranma sighed, big time and stared out into the void that surrounded her, her male half and the crystal.  
  
"Do you know how stupid this sounds?" she finally said.  
  
The male Ranma nodded as the voice stated "Correct.", then the male Ranma and the voice blinked audibly and face-faulted. (don't ask how a voice blinks and face-faults)  
  
Yup, it was deja vu all over again.  
  
****************  
  
Sailor Pluto was beside herself on how could she have miscalculated so badly. She of course expected some negative reaction, especially toward herself, but the complete failure of Ranma transformation was completely unpredicted. Furthermore was that Moon's Healing power seem to have no effect on the curse, this should have not been possible. Something must have protected the curse but as to what she was not sure.   
  
Right now she wasn't sure of anything except her jaw still hurt like hell.  
  
And to top things off was the slight earthquake that occurred today. It was very small compared to ones that have struck in the past, hardly a mention in the news. But Pluto knew better. She knew it was Ranma that had set it off. Safe guards that were built into Sun at the moment of her creation just in case she was attacked in her untransformed state, fear and other emotions that were tied into base survival instincts were pulling small amounts of power subconsciously. This was bad, very bad. If Ranma was feeling threaten by what has happened than she could become a bigger danger that the First Enemy.  
  
It could be worse if Ranma decided to go insane.  
  
Pluto was further frustrated by the fact she always had problems watching Ranma through the Gates of Time. Right now she had no problems seeing where she was right now, sitting there on a park bench, eyes closed seemingly enjoying the morning. It was her nature that made it impossible sometimes even to know where she was, like that helped last night. God, what a screw-up.  
  
If Ranma was going insane or tapping into powers she was not aware of, Pluto would have to find a way to deal with it. Even if it meant killing Ranma.  
  
*****************  
  
Ranma still facing off against her long, but not quite forgotten past and a reminder of her recent, wish she could forget past, sighed heavily at it all. Why her?  
  
Look guys, I need to think about this.  
  
What's there to think about, let's just go back and get reven - the male Ranma began before getting cut off by the female one.  
  
No. That's out, if you think I'm going to let a psycho like you out, you have another thing coming.  
  
_Then you have decided to accept?_ the voice asked.  
  
No, I haven't decided anything yet. I just need to do what I said: think. Now if you will excuse me. and with that Ranma opened her eyes and cleared her mind away. She then felt a slight creepy feeling of being watch come over her before shaking it off and turning to more pressing matters.  
  
[Man my life just gets better and better.] she thought as she stood, stretched unconsciously in a way that gave passing boys nosebleeds. Seeing that it was starting to get late in the morning Ranma decided to head for home. Maybe she could find some answers there.  
  
******************  
Ranma was making her way home thinking about everything that had happen. It didn't help that Happosai used some mind altering pressure points to make her start doubting almost everything around her. At least Sailor Pluto didn't resort to that...  
  
Wait a minute.  
  
[Pluto was responsible for my curse.] Ranma thought, [She didn't use pressure points, but she was responsible for my curse in the first place and made damn sure that I was placed in a position that I would become vulnerable and open to suggestion... yeah and then... what?]  
  
Ranma stopped on the side walk and pondered this point some more.  
  
[Maybe she knew I would end up on the streets... that's when my thinking change. When did my thinking change?] Ranma shook her head, [I can't remember, it was such a slow and gradual thing I didn't even know about it.]  
  
Ranma struggled with the unpleasant thoughts, while she began walking again at a slower pace.  
  
[Brainwashing,] she concluded, [yeah that's what they call it. She made sure I was broken enough to be brainwashed into what she needed. Bitch.]  
  
About that time in her trek home, Ranma spied Akiko as she was out sweeping the front entryway.  
  
"Did you have a nice walk, dear?" she asked as Ranma came up to her.  
  
"Yes, thank you, I had a lot to think about." Ranma said in a false cheer.  
  
"Anything you're ready to talk about?"  
  
Ranma thought about that for a moment, she did want to talk about it, but it was trying to decide how much to tell, she finally decided on everything. Akiko has treated her like family even before she was formally adopted into the clan. But, in a sudden attack of paranoia, Ranma considered the possibility that maybe Akiko was some pressure point or brainwashed based illusion. Shaking that off, Ranma decided to talk with Akiko, if she were real it would help, if she was some illusion then it wouldn't make any difference.  
  
"Well granny, it's kinda a long story - and unbelievable one at that."  
  
"It couldn't be anymore unbelievable than what you already been though, can it?" Akiko said with a hint of worry in her voice.  
  
Ranma had a "try me" look on her face as she answered, "I think so. Is Michiko around? I think she should be here, too."  
  
"I'm afraid not, she went over to Hitomo to help her get some more gatchapon's for her collection. I told her you were troubled by something and went for a walk to think some things out. She did say if you were up to it, you could catch up and join them, she said you knew the place."  
  
Ranma thought about that, joining her friends and forgetting all about her conversation with her "other selves", but she desperately wanted to talk to someone about this, and couldn't wait. It felt as if a weight had been placed upon her shoulders and it was slowly crushing her, mentally and spiritually.  
  
"I really need to talk about it now, please. I just don't know how comfortable I would be at certain points."  
  
"Just tell me want you're comfortable with, and we'll deal with the details later."  
  
Ranma and Akiko retired into the confines of the restaurant and settled on a table in the back after locking the door behind them. Ranma proceeded to tell about the events last night unedited. Akiko for her part listened patiently and asked questions where she needed something clarified.  
  
"... so you see, my curse is unlocked and I don't feel ... comfortable being... a boy anymore. Dealing with that and everything else that has happened last night has left me... I don't know, I guess I'm doubtful of everything."  
  
Akiko thought about this interesting turn of events. "Ranma." she finally said. "do you remember when you first came here? I asked you if you were a boy or a girl and you said you didn't consider yourself either?"  
  
Ranma thought back, she recalled something like that and nodded.  
  
"Well, it's just that now you said you're happier as a girl, yet you are unsure if that is how you really feel or something that you were lead to believe." Akiko continued.  
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
"But, if you were happy as a girl, why did you get your curse unlocked by that Sailor Moon?'  
  
"I don't know why, I think at that moment it didn't have to anything to do with being a girl or a boy, I was just angry that the choice that should have been mine was taken out of my hands. It should have been my choice and no one else's." Ranma answered, mildly defensive.  
  
"Well, with that is mind, how do you see yourself now?" Akiko gently asked.  
  
Ranma hesitated, she thought some more and still hesitated. Then screwed up her courage and spoke "Granny, I'm happy as a girl now, to tell you the truth I'm happier now for the most part than I ever been in my life. I think of myself as being mostly a girl now. But somewhere deep in the back of my head I hear a male voice calling to me, saying I shouldn't be happy like this, that I should be a boy. To top of that off I'm not sure if being happy as a girl is what I truly want or this is something I was tricked into thinking I want."  
  
"I see. Now what are you going to do?"  
  
"I plan on staying like I am, I think." Ranma said somewhat unsure.  
  
There was a pregnant pause.  
  
"Ranma I'll tell you how I see it. You heart, your body and for the most part your mind has decided. But you still have a small parts of you that is uncertain. You are going to have to deal with those parts of your mind or I don't think you can every really be happy... or complete."  
  
Ranma sighed, she had came to that conclusion as well. Nothing in her life seems simple. Most kids her age were trying to decide what field of study they want to go into in college, or who they want to date, or whether to go to the beach or not. For her, she was just trying to stay sane and decide if everything around her was real or not. Why can't anything be normal for her?   
  
The hardest fight was going to be the one with herself. It was a fight she truly couldn't run from, but she knew like everything else in her life she really didn't have a choice.  
  
Choice. She realized that she really didn't have a choice.  
  
"Want are you going to do about Happosai's offer?" Akiko broke into Ranma's thoughts.  
  
Ranma sighed, "I don't know, I can't claim a moral high ground. Looking back even before Nerima, I would get into fights for the stupidest reasons or in the name of training or something or other, and wreak buildings or damage property all around me fighting whomever. I guess in a way, I'm not much better than he is, from a certain point of view."  
  
Akiko raised her eyebrow, but didn't comment.  
  
"Thanks for listening, I guess I got a lot to think about, huh?"  
  
Akiko nodded and stopped Ranma with a upraised hand, "Ranma if you are this Sailor Sun, you know this is something you should not be telling everyone."  
  
"Yeah, but you're different, if I can't talk to you or Michiko, who can I talk to?"  
  
"I'm not saying that you shouldn't have said anything, but I think for now you should keep it between you and I." Akiko amended.  
  
Ranma thought about it for just a second before replying, "Yeah, I can see your point. Granny its been a long night and even longer morning, would you mind if I lay down for a bit?"  
  
Akiko smiled at Ranma, "You go right ahead, dear. I'll tell Michiko and any of your friends that show up that you're not feeling very well right now and are laying down resting."  
  
"Thanks." Ranma said as she return Akiko's smile, and with that Ranma climbed the stairs to the living quarters and after removing her shoes headed for the living room to lay down.  
  
Ranma laid there, not sleeping in spite of the fatigue of the recent events. Akiko was always good to talk to, and even if she was not closer to a solution than before, it felt good to "take the load" off her mind. One thing that Akiko said kept coming back to her, "You are going to have to deal with those parts of your mind or I don't think you can every really be happy... or complete." Leave it to Akiko to hit the nail on the head and reaffirm what Ranma already knew. Ranma was going to have to deal with the problem, staying like she was, was out of the question and just delayed the inevitable. If she understood correctly, if her other self could take charge and things could get dangerous for everyone around her.  
  
Ranma sighed, her life was never easy, and it just kept getting harder. It just that she felt she hardly ever got any "down time" to rest physically or mentally, that she always have to deal with something that's always going on around her or in this case, in her. Ranma sighed again, [Can I ever catch a break?]   
  
She knew she had to choose, even though she just realized talking with Akiko she really had no choice. Her other half was hung up on punishing everyone, and might be a little homicidal, if it decided to have a "sex change to gain access to the power it craved, things could go very badly.   
  
...All that we are and all that we ever are going to be is the end result of all of our memories." words that Happosai spoke last night came back to haunt her.  
  
If she embraced the magic within her soul and the memories that will eventually come with it, will it mean losing everything that she is now? That scared her - which memories would take precedence? The one that made her who she is today or the 1500 years that came before?  
  
Either thought was unsettling in its own way.  
  
Wearily Ranma drifted off into a trouble sleep.  
  
***************  
  
Akiko downstairs was thinking of the conversation she just had with Ranma. She knew from Ranma's own admission and the research that her brother did on her life that she lived a adventuresome and difficult life. How could anyone that young survive all that she had been though and mentally stay in one piece? Maybe she didn't, but she knew Ranma was telling the truth, at least how she saw the truth. Akiko felt she had always been a good judge of character and Ranma couldn't tell a good lie to save herself. Sigh. Poor child, whatever did you do to have such a life. No matter, if Ranma decides to go back to being a man (which Akiko thought was unlikely) or stay as she is, Akiko would support whatever decision Ranma made. Akiko just hoped whatever the decision that Ranma made, it would be the right one.  
  
***************  
  
Flying through the high, she shot through the sky. She loved how the layer of clouds would hang above her like a ceiling one second and the next, trailing wisps of vapor behind her as flew through them.  
  
Twisting and turning, riding the wake of spacial distortion like a surfer would a wave, she danced among the small tides of twisted space, laughing while doing so. Moving right to left, zipping up and down she reveled in the freedom that flying gave her. Oh, she loved this as much as dancing, even more so than training - she could spend hours doing this. She hadn't been getting the opportunity to do this often though, between missions for the Queen, bodyguard work and simple massager work to extra-solar empires she had been keeping quite busy. It was odd how the queen would set her off on a job a quarter of the galaxy away, in the open to whomever was there, yet keep her existence secret from the other scouts and nobles in the upper court.   
  
Oh, well she had a little time, might as well enjoy it. With that thought she distorted the space around her feet even more and streaked high across the sky like a meteor blazing a smoking trail behind her. She curved her trajectory upward and with a back flip, dove for the ground.  
  
The clouds that she just pasted through going up were quickly left behind in her wake. The ground, so far below, neared with every passing second. She grinned. Pointed head first she continued her dive, all along thinking "This is going to be great." The ground was closing faster now, her target in sight far below her. Narrowing her eyes in concentration, for she didn't want to miss her mark, her grin enlarged into a smile.  
  
Timing was everything.  
  
Shooting down from directly above her target, she came to a sudden crashing halt, stopping about four feet above her victim's head. She stopped, but the column of air that was trailing behind her didn't. With a mighty whoosh that followed the raised winds that hit the ground and spread out over her target, she laughed out loud as her victims elegant clothes swirled up and about as the long blond locks of the women hair spiraled around her body, entangling her.  
  
The maelstrom passed quickly and with a look of annoyance, the victim of her practical joke look her right in the eye as Ranma, who still hovered above looked down, grinned and said, "Hello Queen Serenity. What can I do for you today?"  
  
***************  
  
Ranma stirred from her slumber.   
  
[Man, I gotta do something. These dreams alone will drive me nuts.]  
  
_"You cannot escape who you are."_  
  
[Great, you again. I told you I needed to think, so let me alone.]  
  
_"I can't "let you alone" you and I are just two parts of the whole, you are the dominate personality now, but that can change. What would happen if the slightly insane remnants of your personality decides to change into a female personality and assert itself . You say you won't let it, but way else would you have chosen to try for cure when you were happy as you were?_"   
  
[You're saying that the real reason I tried for a cure was because of my male half "took over"?]  
  
_"Not exactly "take over", but heavily influence your decision making capabilities. It probably hoped that you would have accepted your male body and leave it uncontested in trying to gain power. You will have to be more careful of it's influence in the future until you have become whole."_  
  
[As careful as you trying to influence me now?"] Ranma thought sarcastically.  
  
_"Believe what you will, but in the end you will have to do something or lose your sanity or worse, and all that is dear to you."_  
  
[Just leave me alone, I gotta think.]  
  
Ranma basked in the resulting silence in her head and tried to get back to sleep. Failing that, she rose and went downstairs, maybe it was time for another talk.  
  
"Granny?" she said tentatively   
  
"Yes dear, what is it?"  
  
"About what I said earlier - what do you think I should do?" Ranma asked, hoping that there was another way.  
  
"I think you should do what's right for you and no one else."  
  
"O - kay... what would you do if you were me?"  
  
"I can't really say, dear. I'm afraid if I tell you anything it would harm whatever trust you have in me."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well, from what you said earlier it seem to come down to a matter of choice, or in your case, a lack of choice. Well if I told you what I thought, you might think I was trying to decide for you one way or another."  
  
"But, I'm just asking for advice, it's not like you're telling me what to do."  
  
"Maybe, but the situation as it is, anything I say could be misunderstood as a manipulation, and you know how badly you said you reacted to that last night with Happosai and that Sailor Pluto."  
  
"Granny, I would never think that -" Ranma began.  
  
Akiko held up a hand, silencing Ranma, "You think and feel that now, but what about later? Ranma this is really something only you can decide on."  
  
"Granny - I'm ... I'm scared ... it's too big. Whatta I'm going to do?"  
  
Akiko smiled, "That's "what should I do" and as for that, search your feelings and go with them, and only you can make this decision for yourself."  
  
"Thanks." Ranma said somewhat dejectedly. "I'll think I'll grab a bite to eat and walk around a bit - you know and think."  
  
"That sounds like a fine ideal, just be back it time for dinner." Akiko said with a soothing tone.  
  
With that Ranma raided the kitchen and then headed out the door.  
  
*******************  
  
Ranma roamed the neighborhood not really paying attention to where she was going. She was deep in thought and feeling more that slightly trapped in the situation she found herself in. There didn't seem to be any up side to her dilemma and the only one way out seem like it would be end of her as she thought of herself. It didn't help that she kept wondering if the whole thing was real or not, the ideal that maybe this was all something that Cologne might have done to her reared it's ugly head and brought with it a whole host of other equally unpleasant possibilities. Ranma's hands started to shake as she let her paranoia run rampant for a few minutes, after that she quickly squelched any thoughts along those lines. If this was all real, then in was just as bad as any nightmare she could come up with anyway.   
  
She was scared. Scared to a point that she was not afraid to say so to Akiko. Too many people had messed with her mind, Happosai with his pressure points and Pluto just with her life in general.  
Her life, did she really have her own life or was it nothing more than a plaything or tool to be used by other people? Ranma started feeling angry at this new train of thought.  
  
[How dare they! Who in the hell do they think they are? Why, I should teach them a lesson on how not to mess with other people's lives. Yeah, that's it! I'll just summon Happosai and this time make sure his stays dead, and as for Pluto I'll...]  
  
Ranma stopped that train of thought and her walk at the same time.  
  
Shaking her head, [No! I can't start thinking that way. If I do I might... start thinking like... that... dammit! I bet I'm being influenced by that psycho again. I got to keep my thoughts mine... how do I do that? God this is hard, how do I know which thoughts are mine and which aren't?]  
  
If doubting reality is tough, imagine trying to figure out if what you're thinking is really what you're thinking. Frustrated, Ranma punched a light pole without thought, putting a large dent in the metal. Looking around for any witnesses she frantically thought, [Oh no! I gotta get a hold of myself, someone could get hurt.] Ranma hurried from the scene, sweating with worry and haunted by the unpleasant thoughts.  
  
She eventually found herself a few blocks over, sitting on a bench in front of a boarded up store with "for rent" signs displayed out front. Even with the store being empty the surrounding stores still brought in a crowd that passed by, unnoticed by her.   
  
She tried to think, but was stall or frustrated at every turn. She would think only so far before questioning her own thoughts, then she tried to double-back on her thoughts to rethink what she was thinking about, only to question her rethinking. It was quite maddening. It was some time before she shook out of her seemingly endless loop of non-thoughts.  
  
[Gotta get a hold go myself] Ranma tried to reaffirmed herself, [if I can't trust my own thoughts then I'm really going insane.]  
  
Insane.  
  
That what it was.  
  
That what she was doing.  
  
At least now she was sure of something.  
  
Ranma sat quietly on the bench as the afternoon progressed, descending into a exploration of madness.  
  
_________________  
  
  
  
  



	10. Juuban part 8

Again, I would like to that everyone who has took the time to review this. It really does help.  
  
Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
I don't own any of these characters or situations  
__________________  
  
Juuban part 8  
  
*****************  
  
The pseudo-cat was feeling low, it had been severely chastised for it's failure to get a complete set of readings from the night before. One super trooper lost and hardly anything to show for it. The council was very displeased, but didn't officially reprimand the pseudo-cat because it was working in what could be termed "enemy territory", however it did make themselves clear there were to be no more mistakes. So with that in mind, the pseudo-cat would leave it's scanners on maximum and on 360 degrees all the time during the next fight, this would tax the processing power of the the scanners matrix greatly, but it would insure no one got the drop on it again.  
  
There was going to be one more test attack before the date for the reconstruction force to invade was set. Plans have already been drawn up, just the decision on when to begin putting those plans into motion was all that was needed. The pseudo-cat would be sure of a complete set of readings this time. That was for later in the week though, right now it was on the prowl for something to eat and then to relax. The pseudo-cat was a bio-machine which meant that it had to keep it organic parts fed, the rabbit in consumed three days ago was good, but lasted only so long since it was sharing. The flyer had better luck at finding consumables, anything in the air and ground was fair game, and the pseudo-cat was limited to what was on hand on the ground and so the hunt was on.  
  
It was fortunate that the reconstruction army that would follow the first waves of the invasion force would have plenty to eat with over 6 billion humans to choose from. From preliminary tests, only about 3% of the human population were salvageable to repopulate.  
  
Passing by an alley, it detected a lower life form and moved in to eat.  
  
*****************  
  
When she first hit upon the ideal that she might be going insane, she panicked and began mentally hitting the walls within her psyche before eventually mentally tiring herself out. Ranma did this all while sitting calmly on the crowded bench and as a river of people made their way past her on the sidewalk. A little drama was playing out in her head. She had, in the past, always pictured someone going insane was a noisy affair, with lots of yelling and screaming involved, she now realized that it could be a very quiet thing. A very, very quiet thing, indeed.  
  
Ranma sat thought.  
  
Ranma sat thought on a crowded bench, in front of her a river of people were moving by her.  
  
Ranma was thinking, or at least she thought.  
  
But was it really her that was thinking or was she think she was thinking?  
  
It doesn't matter anymore.  
  
Nothing matters.  
  
If nothing matters, then what's the point?  
  
The point is that there is no point.  
  
If there is no point, what else is there?  
  
Nothing.  
  
If there's nothing, then are we here? There's gotta be something.  
  
There's nothing, us being here is just an oversight, we can fix that.  
  
How do we fix something like that?  
  
By making us not be here anymore.  
  
By making us not be here?  
  
_This is wrong, we are here._  
  
We also need to punish those who wanted to take our life from us and then take our life back.  
  
Take our life back? How?  
  
By taking our life back. You know, taking.  
  
Taking?  
  
By taking our life.  
  
Taking?  
  
Taking our life? You mean killing ourselves?  
  
Yes.  
  
How?  
  
You keep guys keep thinking, we'll make a list.  
  
_This is wrong, don't think about ending our self._  
  
But, they can't get to us anymore if we're dead. We'll never be used again.  
  
True.  
  
But not before we get them.  
  
Get them?  
  
They need to know what it's like to live in fear.  
  
Yes, fear.  
  
_This is wrong, we don't need to do this._  
  
They need to suffer like we have.  
  
Suffer. Yes, suffer.  
  
They need to learn their lesson before they die.  
  
_This is wrong, this is killing needlessly. Think, we don't want to do this._  
  
They need to be punished.  
  
Yes, they do. Punished.  
  
_This is wrong. We should not be the one to judge._  
  
They need to be punished like we were, just for being alive.  
  
Yes.  
  
Before we die.  
  
Die. We must die. The people who are to be punished must die. Wait, what about our friends?  
  
They'll get over us. We will be forgotten.  
  
_This is wrong, don't do this._  
  
We can take them with us if we want.  
  
Take them with us... how?  
  
The power, use the power, we have the power. Our birthright.  
  
_This is wrong, taking lives of innocents doesn't end the pain._  
  
Why should we take them with us?  
  
Our passing would cause them pain, if we take them with us, then there will be no pain.  
  
_This is wrong, stop this please, stop this._  
  
We would like that! No more pain for anyone and we won't be alone!  
  
We knew you would like it.  
  
But, what about our friends families? Won't they be hurting from our friends passing?  
  
Yes, but if we take everyone, then no one will be in pain and then everything will be okay.  
  
_This is wrong, this is wrong - don't think this - come to our senses._  
  
Everyone? Who's everyone?  
  
We can take the whole planet, it would be no trouble at all. Everyone would be happy that they weren't left behind.  
  
_This is wrong, we have not Right. We are the one not to decide for everyone. Stop._  
  
Hey, why are we thinking like this?  
  
Because we don't matter, nothing matters. When you don't matter, why should anything else matter?  
  
If it doesn't matter, then why bother? We could stay like we are. Forget everyone and everything else.  
  
Because we still need to teach those who took our life that it should matter.  
  
How?  
  
Sit there, I'll show you,  
  
Ranma's mind was filled with a vision, a glorious vision:  
  
The city was far below her, sprawling over a wide area, it filled her view as she looked down on it. She was about to pass her final judgment. Ranma spun high in mid- air like a top and raised her arms and power, raw power, flowed between them. It would soon be over with, all her tormentors, all her loved ones would soon be dead. She would be alone after this, but not for long. No one would be spared, her tormentors would be sent to damnation, while her loved ones would be sent to a better place.   
  
Like a reversed hurricane the waves of raw power and heat spiraled outward, covering the vision of the city and the country side and the rest of spreading quickly throughout the Earth. Everything was devoured in a blanket of plasma. The oceans gave up in water in vast clouds of steam, on the land the highest mountains melted and sagged and in everyplace in between was sterilized by the flame of vengeance.  
  
_This is wrong. This is evil - this is not us. Stop. Please Stop. Think of what we're doing._  
  
With that task done, Ranma prepared for the last and final thing that needed to be done. Gathering her power she drew it within herself and suddenly dropping her barriers, released it back outward in her now unprotected body. Her form was consumed in an orgy of energy. Ashes were not even left...  
  
... Not even the planet...  
  
... nor the solar system.  
  
At long last Ranma would be free.   
  
_This is wrong, this isn't us, this isn't what we what. Stop. Think. Please._  
  
*********************  
  
The pseudo-cat was walking out of the alley after feeding on a small dog that it had found rummaging through some trash cans for a meal. Now, all it wanted was a quiet place to digest what was it share of the food while waiting to observe the next attack. The Ultimate Weapon that it carried within already took the lions share of the food, so the cat didn't look too distended as it made it's way out of the alley. The pseudo-cat felt a little put upon, hunting for two - but it was for a good and greater cause, the resurrection of the Moon Kingdom. With that thought the pseudo-cat found itself on a sidewalk.  
  
A very busy sidewalk.  
  
The sidewalk was over flowing with pedestrians and the pseudo-cat had to dodge around many of hurrying feet that was threatening to step on it. It was considering going back into the alley that it had just left but the tide of moving legs prevented it from doing so. There was apparently sales going on at two popular stores that bracketed a vacant store, the the crowd was busying itself going between the two. The pseudo-cat was feeling threatened by the crowd, but was under orders not to draw attention to itself. What to do? That's when it spied a lone girl nearby, sitting a a crowded bench with eyes closed and a peaceful looking expression on her face.   
  
The pseudo-cat knew from first hand experience that human females generally liked to pet it, it knew that this would be the perfect opportunity to escape the crowd that was, unknowingly, threatening it with its very numbers. Since arriving here the pseudo-cat found that being petted was rather nice, and except for the one girl who tried to make off with it calling it Francisco, the pseudo-cat found it also a convenient way out of situations just like this. So, like any ship caught in a stormy sea the pseudo-cat made for a safe port, the peaceful sitting girl.  
  
*****************  
  
Yes! That's is how we'll do it.  
  
And nothing to stop us.  
  
_This is wrong. Stop this. We need to come to our senses, to come out of this. This is bad.  
_  
Why is it wrong? If nothing is real, this is our chance to make it real.  
  
_This is real, and we can't go around killing innocent people just because a few treated us badly.  
_  
Why not? They would just treat us badly too, eventually.  
  
_What about Akiko? What about Michiko? Did they treat us badly?  
  
_Akiko? Michiko?  
  
_Yes, what about them? Our family, would we kill them too?_  
  
But, they would be happy, too. Wouldn't they? No more pain for everyone! No pain is good.  
  
_Are you sure? Are you sure they would want this? Have we asked them? Are we going to deny them their choice? We were upset with not having a choice.  
  
_Why are we thinking about this? Why are we thinking about this now?  
  
We must have vengeance, it is all that we have left. Nothing else matters.  
  
All we have left? Nothing matters?  
  
_We are wrong. This is real, everything matters._  
  
We must have satisfaction!  
  
Satisfaction.  
  
We must have blood.  
  
Blood. Whose blood?  
  
The blood of our oppressors.  
  
***************  
  
The pseudo-cat weaved through the crowded sidewalk, barely avoiding getting stepped on a few times. It couldn't wait for the Moon Kingdom to raise from the ashes of this, what it considers a filthy, barbaric world. Yes, the Moon Kingdom would restore order, peace, and justice into this loud and unordered world, just like the Protectors long dead creator's would have wanted.  
  
The pseudo-cat was satisfied that it's target looked like the type of human that would respond well from a "cute" cat in her lap. This would give it the opportunity to relax before the next assignment and to observe the other humans around it up close, but just as important, maybe a chance of getting petted.  
  
The pseudo-cat drew closer to the unsuspecting redhead.  
  
****************  
  
_Please think. Please think - is this what we really want? Truly?  
_  
We need vengeance!  
  
_What about justice?_  
  
Justice? What about justice?  
  
_Justice and protecting the weak... and trying to do what's right.  
_  
A martial artist duty is...  
  
What about Happosai? He's a martial artist. Would a real martial artist do what he did?  
  
... to protect the weak.  
  
_Our vow_. _What about our vow?  
_  
A vow means nothing if the people you give it to misuse it!  
  
Blood. There would be so much blood.  
  
Vengeance will be our justice. Nothing else should matter.  
  
_Think. Please think about what we're doing. Come out of this. We don't really want to do this._  
  
How do we know if this is me? What we really want?  
  
You don't, but if you destroy all that would hurt you then that would be real - no one their to give you pressure point or mess with you life. You could be a world all your own.  
  
... a world of my own.  
  
********************  
  
The pseudo-cat growled as it got it's paw stepped on. It continued to move toward the seated redhead, it dashed under the bench that she was at, avoiding a bike that charged down the crowded sidewalk, parting the crowd. The pseudo-cat rested for just a moment, then strutted under the bench to the end where the girl was sitting. Coming out from the end where the redhead was at, it gauged its jump and prepared to land in a surprised and hopefully happy lap, a good vantage point for observation.  
  
And maybe a good back rub, too.  
  
*********************  
  
Yes. We'll do it.  
  
We'll end it all.  
  
We'll take the world with me.  
  
No more pain for me. No more pain for anyone.  
  
A world of my own making, with no pain, everyone happy.  
  
Yes.  
  
Yes.  
  
We'll do it.  
  
*****************  
  
The pseudo-cat leapt and landed where it hoped. The girl jumped slightly on impact, but otherwise didn't not respond. This was strange, usually there would be a squeal of surprised and a Oh, how cute! then followed by a nice rub, which it found was always good after a meal. Hmmmm. Maybe some verbal communication was in order, it had picked up some of the "lingo" while here, maybe this will get a reaction.  
  
Plus, it still hoped to get petted.  
  
*****************  
  
What was that?  
  
What was what?  
  
Something touched us.  
  
Where?  
  
Our lap.  
  
Maybe it's a pervert.  
  
Maybe it's Happosai. I bet he's back to us again.  
  
Let's test him instead.  
  
It would be good to begin with him, the little mind-altering bastard.  
  
*****************  
  
The pseudo-cat opened its mouth and spoke...  
  
*****************  
  
MEOW  
  
What?! NO! NO! NO! NOT WHEN WE WERE SO CLOSE!  
  
So close? What? so close to what?  
  
MEOW  
  
Ranma opened her eyes and looked down at the horror in her lap.  
  
She remembered fear.  
  
A fear that was very, very real.  
  
***************  
  
The pseudo-cat saw the eyes of the girl open, for a second it seemed all was alright, just for a second. The redhead then let loose a scream of primordial fear and terror that rattled the nearby shop windows and nearly deafened passerby's. It didn't do the pseudo-cats ears any good either. The pseudo-cat didn't even realize that the girl had gone like a vapor, until it found itself on the bench, in the place where the red headed had girl occupied mere seconds ago. So fast did she move that it that to witnesses she just seemed to have just simply disappeared.   
  
Puzzling.  
  
Humans, who could figure them.  
  
*****************  
  
Ranma, breathing heavy rested against one of the support girders that crossed through the roof of the observation deck of the Tokyo Tower. Panting and trying to shake the fear that suddenly consumed her and had derailed her thoughts. Wait... her thoughts...  
  
Her thoughts.  
  
OH NO!  
  
[Oh, god. Oh god, I almost did it. Oh no. No. No. No. No. No.]  
  
Ranma slid down the girder and rested against it, she looked around to find herself on the roof of the observation lounge that was half way up the tower. She didn't even remember how she got up there, all she remembered was the cat and the fear. As Ranma sat, she began shaking, but not from the cold, even though there was a cool wind blowing, more so from her present alleviation, it was from the memory of what she was about to do, gladly. The tears came slowly, then like water that was leaking from a old pipe that had suddenly burst, Ranma cried her soul out, for all she had and all she had almost lost.  
  
As the afternoon was beginning to wane, Ranma had cried herself out. Raising her head from its resting place from her hands, she felt physically and mentally exhausted. What a waste of a perfectly beautiful day, nothing was accomplished and she felt as lost and without hope as ever. Well, she did accomplish something, she was no longer running the same thoughts through her head over and over again. She was no longer planning on literally ending it all, it was the shock of that damn cat in her lap that snapped her out of that.  
  
For the first time since the cat-fist training, she was glad to have seen a cat.  
  
Real or not, this was her life and she would have to find some constructive way to deal with it. Madness was not an option.  
  
Ranma thought about the afternoon, her serious foray into contemplating suicide was probably one of the lowest points in her afternoon. Ranma remembered how it seem like such a good ideal at the time, she wouldn't have to worry about what was real or unreal, she wouldn't have to worry about anyone messing with her head or her life and she could escape all her troubles. The problem was she extended that line of thought to include everyone around her. Happosai, Sailor Pluto, Cologne, Genma, Akiko, Michiko... no... no.  
  
No, suicide was out, at least for now.  
  
She did however, keep the compiled list on different ways to do it, just in case.  
  
Ranma looked at the sun, lower in the horizon and wondered if this was all there is to her life, one damn thing after another. She was tired, so very tired, but not about to give up yet, even after coming so close to losing it. As she saw it now there were only two ways out: suicide, which would be easy to do that now, considering she was half way up the Tokyo Tower, or try and join with the crystal.  
  
Ranma could think of no other acceptable solutions.  
  
_"You know the way, you just need to decide to take it."_ came the voice.  
  
[I wondered when you were going to show up again.]  
  
_"I've always been here, even through your moments of weakness, when you were thinking about ending your life and the lives of everything around you."  
  
_[Then why in the hell didn't you try to stop me?]  
  
_"I did, I kept telling you it was wrong. But in your mental state, you were not very receptive to my calling. It was fortunate that the cat came along and distracted you from your destructive lines of thought."  
_  
[Yeah, first time I was ever glad to be afraid of cats.]  
  
_"I remembered when we use to love cats, talking and gossiping with them in the royal courts."  
_  
[Yeah, I remember that, I wonder if any of them are still around?]  
  
Silence.  
  
[There is really no way, join or death, is there?]  
  
_"I'm sorry, I'm afraid not." _the voice said, sounding sad.  
  
[I'm not ready to die yet, but I can't go on like this either. If there is a chance I'll come out alive or something, I'll take it. Let's get this over with.] with that thought, Ranma leaned back against the girder, closed her eyes and concentrated.  
  
She found the crystal that represented her soul easy enough. Her "other self" was there too, trying to reach the magic within the heart of the crystal, Ranma shuddered when she thought how close her alter-ego and herself came to succeeding in going insane. Ranma watched as her female twin grappled with the glowing crystal, but each time she touched it "she" became a "he". Frustration was clearly marked in every movement that her "other self" was making. She couldn't help but smile at its plight. After a moment of watching the spectacle before her, she moved in and pushed the other her out of the way, in a surprisingly gentle way.   
  
_You are ready to embrace who you are? _the voice said.  
  
"No!"her now male other self protested, "I was so close! I just need more time!"  
  
"Times up, buddy." Ranma snorted at him, then turned her attention to the crystal.  
  
_"Are you ready?"_, the voice asked patently.  
  
Not like I had any real choice in the matter, did I? It was either join with you, let some happy nut case lose upon the world or kill myself. I mean, you knew I really didn't have any choice, why did you have to drag it out like this?  
  
_Sometimes the illusion of choice is as important as having any real choices.  
  
_What is that suppose to mean?  
  
_It means that if I were to suddenly come to you and say you had to join with me and embrace a past you have forgotten and never suspected existed, what would you have done?  
  
_Ranma pondered, then said,I guess... I guess I would have said No way, and fought it tooth and nail.  
  
_By giving you the illusion of choice, you explored all the avenues of possibilities by yourself and came to the correct conclusion. Like everything, there was risk, you nearly went insane. It was the compilation of Happosai's alterations to your mind that nearly made everything end in disaster. But, in the end, you overcame and we didn't have to struggle. You now know what you must to do.  
  
_This stinks, I didn't really have the power to change anything did I?_  
  
The more power you have, the less choice you have. _the voice answered.  
_  
_What do you mean by that?  
  
_It means you had more choices living on the streets than where you are now, but were you happy living like that?  
_  
No I wasn't happy like that, and I didn't have any choice on the streets either. Ranma snorted.  
  
_Perhaps, but the truth is the more responsibilities you have the less possible choices you have. The individual with the least amount of responsibilities has the most choices open to them.  
  
_Whatever, let's get this over with. Ranma said, now truly wanting to get it over with.  
  
_Touch your soul Ranma, reach into it and touch the magic that is within you. the_ voice directed._  
  
_Ranma walked up to the crystal that represented her soul in her mindscape and tentatively touch the glassy surface, it felt warm, smooth and hard. She intuitively push gently against the surface and it yielded, she watch in fascination as the mental projection of her fingers slowly made is way to the center, it looked strangely like pushing through jell-o. The moment the tips of the fingers reached the center a warmth flowed up her arms and then just as quickly, throughout her body. The tickling that had always seem to be a part of her increased dramatically then sharply fell as Ranma started to feel in tune with something, something she felt before. The warmth increased into a fire, a fire that didn't burn and seem to fused within her very being together. Everything was bathed in a light that devoured her other self and continued to increased in brightness until in swallowed everything... then...  
  
... she watched as the Techo-mages infused the power into her very soul...  
  
... she watched as she vaporized high-tech training drones in deep space...  
  
... she watch as Genma, carrying a four year old Ranma over his shoulder as the young child cried and desperately grabbed air in the direction of the retreating form of his mother...  
  
... she watch as she flew through the sky, riding a wake of distorted space...  
  
... she stood by and watch a middle-aged Genma throw a young boy, that was her, into a pit of starving cats,. She heard the screams from within the pit....  
  
... she watched as she laughed and danced with a variety of partners across a ballroom...  
  
... she watched...  
  
... she watched...  
  
... she watched...  
  
... she watched...  
  
... other memories filled Ranma's mindscape as she watch different scenes from her life played out before her, jumping around from one point in time to the next. She saw all the pain and the joy that was her life...  
  
... she watched...  
  
... She even saw the points in time where Happosai had used the pressure points that effected her mind into thinking that innocents were being threatened...  
  
... She saw the drugs that Cologne had put in the ramen to try to get him into the tribe, how she missed that the first time around she couldn't figure...   
  
... She saw the pain of being betrayed by people she thought of as family and the happiness of being truly adopted by such a caring family...  
  
She saw parts of her life, many memories, but not too many, she could only hold so much. Ranma choose to keep the most important one's close to her, making them part of her. Others she filed away with the greater whole where they would be available for reference, but not at the core of her being, the cat fist being one of them.  
  
A great peace came over her as the bright light and images faded from her minds eye.  
  
With that Ranma opened her eyes.  
  
This was not what she was expected. She had thought that she would cease to be what she was and turn into something else. It wasn't that she really changed all that much, she was still her at the core, it was as if Ranma now had a new outlook, a new perspective on life and everything in it. Everything seem sharper for some reason, like a slight fog had been lifted from her eyes; colors seemed brighter, smells seem stronger and the feel of the wind around her body seemed a little more firmer.  
  
She looked out over the roof and out into the city with the same eyes as before, the same thoughts, and the same memories. No, wait. There was more, the memory of the dreams seemed sharper and more real, she remembered them clearer now. But, there was so much in there now, her heart started racing with excitement.  
  
[No. I must take this slowly, if I go to fast I could hurt myself.] Ranma willed her heart to slow as she rose from her seated position and strolled toward the edge of the observation levels roof.   
  
She looked out over the city, a city she had a visions of destroying earlier, and pondered why she had thought of doing such a horrible thing. She also wondered why she waited so long to become whole, but understood at the same time it was a difficult thing to do. The unknown is always difficult. No matter, she was whole again and nothing short of death will ever change that.   
  
She also felt she could deal with certain people that came close to destroying her without meaning too, without destroying everything else. She would think of something - creative for them - it might be fun too. She giggled to herself.  
  
Standing on the edge of the roof with the whole city was laid out before her, she then decided to get a better view. A view she felt, not remembered, that she hadn't seen in quite a long time. She touched the magic within. She didn't have to say the words, but she wanted to hear them with her own ears, her words of liberation,   
  
Solar Crystal Activation, make up.she whispered.  
  
If anyone was there to watch Ranma, she just seem to glow as bands of light flowed up and down her body, then just as suddenly cleared revealing a new her. It was all over quicker than a flash from a camera. For her though, time slowed as she danced and swayed about with the magic that ducked and weave over her form, changing her clothes, changing her. Ribbons of light wrapping about her limbs adding were needed and removing what was not. When the dance was done a different Ranma was looking out across the city.  
  
She was now dressed in a short teal fuku trimmed in white and a white sailor body suit trimmed in teal. The bow on her chest was red as was the larger one on small of her back with trailing ribbons. A golden teirra ringed her forehead with a blazing red stone set in the middle. Her long red hair was was now tied back with a teal bow into a pony tail that brushed against the bow on her lower back. Ranma's feet were adored with black flat slippers, her legs covered in thigh-high white stockings and on her arms she worn black bracers decorated in unusual pattern. (yup, all this from the one-shot.)  
  
Picturing a sword in her grasp, she began to close her hand and as her fingers near each other, a hilt sprang into life and a glowing blade shot forth. Examining the Solar Sword now firmly in her hand, it seemed to be made of energy and matter at the same time, fluctuating between the two. Everything was as it should be. [How do I do this again? Oh yeah!] With that thought, she stepped off the roof.  
  
She did not fall.  
  
Up, up she rose, riding the wave of distorted space that surrounded her feet and lower legs.  
  
The sky was cloudless, she would have preferred some clouds, but right now she didn't care as she shot straight up, higher and higher. The curvature of the Earth was becoming apparent as she went higher still, finally stopping at the edge of space, she was breathing normally. She then looked out across the vast expanse of ocean in one direction that held the approaching darkness of night and the vast land mass in the other side, still in the light of the day. Below her she regarded the island nation that was her home.  
  
Regarding herself, she smiled.  
  
For the first time since her death at the end of the Silver Millennium, Sailor Sun was reborn.  
____________________________  
  



	11. Juuban part 9

I would like to thank everyone who has reviewed this. I hope I'm pulling this off alright.  
  
Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
I don't own any of these characters or situations. Okay the spelling errors are mine, as are the grammar mistakes.  
____________________  
  
Juuban part 9  
  
*****************  
  
Behind the "Yoshi Cafe' American", outside of Ranma's sleeping quarters, a slit appeared in the very air about three feet above the surface of the roof. The slit opened wider in the middle as a flat edge of a sword began prying it apart widening enough for a ponytailed girl to stick her head out through the gap to have a look around. Her red hair flew about her face and head as it rubbernecked around.  
  
[Whew! Made it. Finally.]  
  
It had been an eventful afternoon.  
  
Even though the Saotome school of Anything Goes is an arial one, with leaps of incredible heights of two to four stories high not being uncommon, heights of 64 miles straight up were something of a new experience for Ranma. She found out first hand after climbing to that altitude, she really wasn't prepared for that. Even if after remembering how she got up there - the problem was she couldn't quite remember how to get back down. She realized this after the euphoria had worn off from being and she finding herself floating in the vacuum of space. This is what she got for going along with a feeling from the last dream she had.  
  
Ranma had floated along and panicked a bit at first before calming herself, she tried to remember how to do this but drew a blank. Most of the memories from her earlier life were more like strong feelings now, with very few specifics, but still very, very tangible. She knew that she knew, but sometimes it was hard to think about what she knew. Everything was happening on an instinctual level, without any conscious thought, almost as if she spent a great deal of time practicing it. It was like doing something so long you can't tell anyone else how you did it anymore.  
  
After calming herself, she relaxed and floated along and watched the world pass by beneath her. It was a lovely sight and one she seemed to remember seeing before many times, but like all of her memories of her past life, it was more of a feeling. So while Ranma was making new memories as she did a little sight-seeing, she also thought in the back of her mind about what to do about her predicament. She watched the Pacific ocean go by as it faded into night, the lights of the great cities of the America's out line the continents western borders where it meet the sea as the world passed under her.   
  
It was about this point that Ranma realized that if she extended her senses in almost the same sort of the way she would if she were extending her ki to help detect opponents, she could actually feel the earth as it passed. Not just part of the Earth, the whole Earth. Pushing her senses up a notch, the impression of the Moon was felt even though it was on the other side, with the Earth between them. Pushing it up even more, she could feel, actually feel everything on the Earth, she broke from that as the overload of information threaten to overwhelm her. That was a weird and mind expanding experience.  
  
Getting back to her then current situation...  
  
Oh well, if one way doesn't work try another. So with that as inspiration, she once again called her Solar Sword and tried something she a just an impression of, another technique from another dream. Picturing the word in her mind, she slashed down and opened a slit before her in space, then with the flat of the sword, widened it and entered. Hoping that it would take her where she wanted to go, the restaurant.  
  
Oops.  
  
The moon was not where she wanted to go.  
  
It took awhile for her to compose herself for another attempt. She found that her concentration must be focused entirely where she wanted to go, or she would find herself someplace unexpected. It took several tries to figure that out. After a few trips that carried her once to China and Australia (she blamed a recent viewing of Crocodile Hunter on that trip), and then various places around Tokyo until she finally got the hang of it. Which is why she was currently stepping onto the roof of what she considered her true home. With more practice, Ranma was sure this would become second nature.  
  
[Man, I thought this was going to be easy.] Ranma thought as she de-transformed into her street clothes. She stopped, wondering how she did that, shaking her head she jumped down from the roof into the darkening alleyway below and she entered through the rear of her the building. She hoped that Granny wasn't too worried for her. Making her way through the kitchen area, Ranma noted that she must be on time, for it looked like dinner hadn't been started yet, that was until she noted the time on wall clock finding it was way past dinner. [Oh man, I was gone longer than I thought. I hope they were not too worried.] Going into the dinning area she spotted Akiko and Michiko talking at one of the tables near the front while looking out the front windows. Ranma made her way over to them.  
  
"Granny. Michiko. I sorry I'm so late." Ranma apologized as she bowed.  
  
"It's alright, dear." Akiko replied, with a hint of worry, "Did everything work out?"  
  
"Yes, better than I hoped for." then turning to Michiko, "I'm sorry about not going with you and Hitomo today... I just had some old issues come up that I had to take care of it."  
  
"Granny told me that you were troubled by something. Is there anything I could do the help you?" Michiko looked at Ranma while twirling a lock of her hair between her fingers.  
  
"Nope, all taken care of. Thank you for asking, though."  
  
"Good for you, dear. Now why don't you grab a quick bite then help Michiko and I prep for tomorrow. We can talk about what you did this afternoon later." Akiko said to Ranma with a relieved look in her eye.  
  
************  
  
It was fairly late in the evening when Michiko and Ranma finished up prepping for tomorrow. After bathing together and dressing for the night, Akiko signaled Ranma over.  
  
"Is everything really alright, dear? You seemed so troubled earlier - I just want to be sure that you are okay." Akiko spoke softly.  
  
"Yes, granny. I think most of those problems are behind me, I'm ready to have new and exciting problems now." Ranma said with a playful grin on her face.  
  
Akiko regarded her and smiled back, "I'm sure you will, but remember what I said earlier, you are not alone in this. You have people who will help you if you need it, you are family now and family takes care of family."  
  
Ranma stared at Akiko for the briefest of moments before enveloping the older women in a warm and affectionate hug.  
  
"Thank you, thank you. You have no ideal how much that means to me." Ranma whispered, choking back the emotion.  
  
Akiko return the hug as both women basked in the moment.  
  
*******************  
  
Next day...  
  
[Let's see, how to deal with Happosai?] Ranma pondered that problem while nibbling at the end of her pencil. She didn't want to kill, no matter how much the mind altering little runt deserved it. She didn't dismiss that option either, but kept that line of thought as a last resort. There was no way, though that she was going to let Happosai and his gang of idiots get away with what they did. Happosai will probably end up doing it to some other poor bastard if she didn't do something to stop him.   
  
Then there was the other masters to contend with. They took care of Happosai for three years while he recovered from his wounds from the last time they fought, it would be a good bet that they would band together in a moment of crisis. With that in mind Ranma had to think of the best way to stop Happosai and the other masters from doing anything she would consider stupid.   
  
[Let's see, Happosai wants to retire and can't until he finds a replacement. That could give me some leverage, but how to stop these stupid and insane "tests" that they give every candidate. Hmmm. I'm going to need something that will effect the entire school of Anything Goes, not just Happosai. He may be a grand master, but he is the product of that school. I'll just have to change the school, but how?]  
  
Ranma ponder this question some more, oblivious to the fact that the teacher was getting more and more impatient with her to answer the question that was just asked of her. She didn't realize this until her neighbor from behind reached over and nudged her in the ribs.  
  
"Yes?" Ranma said while looking around and blinking her eyes, bringing her back into the here and now.  
  
"Miss Ranma Yonai, I'm sure that the possibly of daydreaming about boys is a interesting pastime, but it won't get you very far in this world. An education is important and you would due well to pay attention. Do I make myself clear?" Mr. Isobe, the history teacher said while looking over his glasses.  
  
"Um... oh! Yes sir, sorry sir, won't happen again sir." Ranma stammered out as she blushed while bolting upright in her seat as the rest of the class giggled at her plight.  
  
"See that it doesn't. You are fortunate to live in a time where you have the combined knowledge of the past to learn and build from, without it we wouldn't be where we are today. Now let's turn our attention back to..." he droned on.  
  
Ranma had an ideal. It seemed like a perfectly marvelous ideal. She smiled to herself, just a few details to work out and she'll pull the rug out from under Happosai and his gang.  
  
************  
  
The pseudo-cat was reviewing data from the last 12 hours when it came across an energy spike, an enormous energy spike. The reason that it didn't set off any internal alarms was that it was so brief, scarcely 1/1000's of a second in duration, that it was disregarded as a scanner error by the internal filters. The pseudo-cat would had too, if it weren't for the fact that the energy signature matched closely to the earlier anomaly. The difference in this spike was that is was more concise and controlled than the one that came before. The pseudo-cat wasn't even sure that it couldn't even pinpoint where the spike occurred.  
  
The pseudo-cat was alarmed, so much so that it opened the emergency hyper-space uplink and filed a report on the energy spike directly with the council. So large was the reading that it was impossible to measure with any degree of accuracy, and just now like the other old Moon Warriors, was just as hard to pinpoint. It knew that this might disrupt the invasion time table.   
  
When the flyer had returned from it global mission last week it had found that even though this world did process highly destructive weapons, their reluctance to use them would prove to be in the Protectors favor. Also noted was a reluctance, for the most part, to doing any harm or injure another of their own kind. The pseudo-cat knew that this would be helpful in what little it knew of the plan that had been drawn up for the invasion.  
  
****************  
  
Ami was not happy, again. It has been three days since Saturday's night's fight with the demon and meeting the supposed Sailor Sun and she was no closer to figuring it out what had happened. Pluto was evasive as usual and disappeared back to the Gates of Time, probably to nurse her sore jaw. Her jaw, Ami couldn't believe it! Ranma had actually decked Pluto. A good one too, considering that Pluto's jaw was beginning to swell before she left. Ami felt that her and the rest of the scouts wouldn't be hearing from Pluto for a while. She felt a little guilty that she was secretly pleased that Pluto was caught off guard like that, but how in the hell was Ranma able to do that? Ami was in her Senshi form, and couldn't figure out how Ranma was able to move so fast - it was faster than anyone could possibly move. Unless...  
  
Maybe she had access to her Senshi powers while untransformed... if she did then why didn't she change... were the transformation words the wrong ones? Was she already in her transformed state? With a bra hanging out of her pocket? A bra? What was she doing like that? At that time of night? And what was that about Neptune and spanking? Ami's imagination ran wild entertaining all sorts of - unusual thoughts - before coming back under control.   
  
Ami shook her head and sighed. This didn't make sense. She thought about using the Mercury computer to search Sailor Sun's files again for anything they overlooked during their first, brief investigation. However, without Usagi doing the work she wouldn't get anywhere, and... no she didn't want to go through that again, not if she could help it. There must be something else she could try.   
  
Why would they make a super powered Senshi, a ridiculously super powered Senshi and no one, with the exception of Pluto, knows anything about her? Why would they have something like that around and not use it during the war with the Negaverse? With that much firepower victory would have been assured.   
  
Something was not adding up.  
  
***************  
  
The pseudo-cat had just received confirmation from its superiors and the latest incident was noted and logged. There would be no action taken, since the council thought that it had that contingency covered already. Figures, the council was more interested in the know old Moon Kingdom warriors than any unsure, unknown factor that it was sure the Ultimate Weapon could handle. The pseudo-cat felt that the council was getting impatient and careless, but kept such thoughts to itself.  
  
With that, the pseudo-cat rested it's head on its forepaws as it enjoyed having its fur rubbed from some random middle schoolgirl.  
  
*****************  
  
Over the last two nights Ranma had been exploring the extent of her new found powers, or in this case rediscovering her old powers. She found, as a Senshi she could see things she ordinarily couldn't sense, she could actually if she wanted, feel the fabric of space around her. It was hard to describe, but she could, by using her will fold, smooth and twist it doing all sorts of interesting things, flying just being one of them.  
  
So every night, after work and the night time routine was completed and while everyone else was asleep for the night, Ranma transformed and made her way the the very top roof of the building via sword. She didn't want to use the window just in case she was seen, and felt safer doing it this way. Her control over where she was going was much better than when she started and, as she thought the first night, it was starting to become almost second nature.  
  
These past few nights, since Sunday, Ranma had been very busy honing what she could. When she took a little training trip to test her new abilities, she first started by thinking of the most isolated place she could imagine and with her sword went there, she ended up back on the Moon. Oh well, one place is as good as another Ranma figured, and she wouldn't have to worry about being interrupted by anyone. There she would try several things she remembered from her dreams and then these would loosen more memories of other things she would then try. Flying was easier now, if a little unnerving, but she was fast getting use to it.  
  
One of the most useful things she discovered the first night however, was something that slowed time down to a crawl. She tested how much she was able to slow time by borrowing a digital stopwatch from Michiko before bedtime and setting away from her on the living room table before transforming and slowing down time. After observing the stopwatch and comparing it to the time on her wristwatch, which was also set to stopwatch mode, she then watched until the numbers changed. It took a long time. Ranma was however, able to get a good estimate of how much she was able to slow down time. She calculated she could slow time down for her to a point where 1/100th's second equaled approximately six hours. That meant one second equaled twenty-five days, one minute equaling over four years, she didn't want to figure beyond that.  
  
She started using this ability to lengthen her training time at night and look for the library and still be able to get a respectable nights sleep out of it.  
  
************  
  
Orders just came in. The next schedule test attack would take place in the park, in two nights around 11:00 at night, near where the expeditionary force will land and establish a beachhead. They would send another super trooper again to make up for the lack to readings from the last attack. Remembering the councils displeasure, the pseudo-cat would be sure to get a full set of readings this time.  
  
It will also give the pseudo-cat time to find something more to eat, and maybe another back rub - something which it found itself becoming very addicted too.  
  
This would be the last test attack before the date would be set for the invasion force and the following reconstruction force crossed over to reestablished the Moon Kingdom.  
  
*************  
  
Because of the slight drizzle outside, Ranma was eating her lunch in the classroom. She was surrounded by her usual crowd Hitomo, Chiyo, Tamami and of course Michiko listening to Chiyo finishing tell about the latest fight the Senshi had the night before. Ranma was not particularly interested in what was going on with the Senshi, with the exception of one.  
  
[Oh, yeah. Pluto I gotta think of someway to deal with her after I deal with Happosai. One disaster at a time, though.] Ranma mused.   
  
"You keep up these things, what do you think going on?" Hitomo asked Chiyo.  
  
"Well," Chiyo theorized, "The demons are up to something, there have been a lot of attacks, like clockwork, but no real damage - it's like... I don't know."  
  
"Yeah and I heard that the demons are not like the others from before. These turn into a sludge that stays around, not a dust that fades away." Tamami informed the group.  
  
"Where did you here that?" Chiyo asked.  
  
"I read about it on the internet."  
  
The conversation went on along those lines as Ranma tuned it out and thought about what she had to do before weekend.  
  
************  
  
[Now were is that little perv's Library?] Ranma thought as she once again scanned the fabric of space/time around her. This was the second night she went looking for the Anything Goes Library after training and she knew it had to be around somewhere in space and time. There were many little and large anomalies, but nothing "felt" like what she was looking for. Ranma quickly found with practice she could home in on anything she wanted that was in the space/time fabric, it was a matter of trying to filter out the massive amount of information that she was being bombarded with.  
  
It took some doing and many spent hours in slowed time to find it, directly overhead tucked against another distortion. Ranma flew up to it and with her sword cut a small slash into the distortion. She was soon greeted by the interior of the Anything Goes Library, unoccupied, [Perfect] she thought as she exited. Once she was back on the roof, she then took a few pieces of space/time and folded over the distortion that was the Library, the refolded it on itself. After that she was able to take the whole thing and put into her personal "stuff space", unreachable to all but her. The library with the sum knowledge of the Anything Goes history and techniques in her pocket - subspace pocket that is.   
  
A perfect bargaining chip.  
  
*****************  
  
After a few days of thinking along narrow lines Ami stopped her train of thought for a moment to reconsider. She hit upon not considering Ranma as some girl who could maybe turn into a Senshi, and started thinking of her in a political sense, a weapon. Then, with that in mind, continued thinking along a new, broader and different lines of thought.  
  
Why would they build a Senshi capable of destroying a star system? They would have to have a reason. Ami thought back to her research into the founding of the Moon Kingdom, it was during that period of time that there was many perceived threats from outside the Solar System. Could that be it? Sailor Sun was built to protect the Moon Kingdom from threats from outside the Solar System? That would explain why Sailor Sun could function so well in space. Were there really that many threats? Maybe there were, maybe not - sometimes just thinking that there are threats is enough to motivate a person or a group of people into action. A powerful weapon such as Sun would make a good...  
  
... deterrent?   
  
Using Sailor Sun as a deterrent would explain a lot, it would also explain the test video they watched... maybe they were really more like demonstrations of capability instead. Anyone who witnessed that kind of strength would think twice before attacking the Moon Kingdom. Doing so would be would be tantamount to committing suicide.  
  
Then what happened? Why wasn't Sailor Sun used during the fight against the Negaverse?  
  
Why build such a weapon of mass destruction and not use it? A weapon so powerful that... that... you would be afraid to use it. A sentient weapon that could possibly turn on you. How would you control such a weapon? Wait. How would you control such a person?  
  
Ami felt she was going to have to brush up on her psychology.  
  
*************  
  
The next part of the plan was to confront not only Happosai, but all the masters at once. This meant that she would have to do that in a preferable transformed state. Ranma searched her still very spotty memory, looking for something, anything that would make her appear normal in her transformed state. She had found if she wanted to, she could search her memories of anything that she needed, but she had to "think" a certain way in order to access them. That was the difficult part, trying to figure out what thought, what "key word" if you will, would jog a memory loose and give her the answer she needed.  
  
Thanks to another episode of "Crocodile Hunter" she watched that night after homework, she ran across the correct line of thought.  
  
Camouflage. That's what she needed. So that night, she was again on the very top of the building that house the Yoshi Cafe' American and Team Leader Clothes and Fashions working on camouflage. It didn't take as long as Ranma thought it would to find the correct "key sequence", the end result was one Senshi, dressed a Juuban High School uniform - complete with blue bow - ugh. Tomorrow, she would be ready.  
  
**************  
  
When Ami had asked her mother the day before if she had any reading material on psychology, the few books that she produced were voluminous. Looking thought the books before her, Ami was intimidated by the possibilities and she was not one that was easily intimidated. There was a lot of information that was covered in each book. Ami exhaled through pursed lips and with arms upraised, stretched the kinks out, still being a bit sore from the fight the other night. There was just too much material to cover blindly, she had to get more specific information, and that meant doing the unthinkable. Tomorrow she would have to use the Mercury computer...  
  
... and call Usagi.  
  
****************  
  
She waited at the park after breaking the summoning rod, hoping that Happosai would hurry, she didn't want to be any later for work than she had to be. Happosai soon made his appearance, dressed as before. "So my boy, have you decided to be my heir?" he asked with a hint of excitement in his voice.  
  
"Not quite, Happosai. I have a few more questions for you and the other masters - could we get together - say this Saturday around 2:00 in the afternoon on the same roof as last time?" Ranma replied in a slightly "girlie" way that seem to throw Happosai off a bit.  
  
Happosai, slightly deflated, looked at Ranma and blinked, then asked. "What questions? Surly you could just ask me now?"  
  
"I'm afraid not, Happosai. This has to do with the very school of Anything Goes and its future, if any." Ranma said, while batting her eyes.  
  
Happosai looked lost for a moment. [What in the hell is the boy up to now?] after another moment of contemplating he finally spoke, "Very well Ranma, my... boy?, ahh... girl? ... em, I'll make sure we'll meet you Saturday at 2:00, same roof as last time."  
  
"Why thank you so very much Happosai, I'll see you and the rest of the masters, then." Ranma gushed as she gave a million dollar smile.  
  
Happosai stood and stared, wondering if something he did adversely effected Ranma's mind. By the time he shook himself from these thoughts, Ranma was gone and on that note he left the park himself.  
  
Giggling to herself, Ranma walked away, so far it was going as planned. She was glad that she hit upon trying to access her powers without transforming - it needed the right frame of mind to do it though. She was still going to the meeting transformed state though and in camouflaged. She figured she would need the extra firepower, just in case.  
  
*************  
  
The next day after school, Ami and Usagi were up in Ami's bedroom. Ami was attempting to lead Usagi through the menu's that lead to the files that contained the information on Sailor Sun.  
It was as bad as Ami remembered. She had hoped that Usagi would have retained some of what she did last time, but all she remembered from the last ordeal was that it was "neat". Ami was glad that none of the other scouts were here, after Rei literally bit a hole in one of her favorite pillows the last time, she wasn't sure if any of them would survive this. After a while, she wasn't sure if she would survive this.  
  
Finally! They found themselves at the splash screen and clicked through it that lead to Sailor Suns files. After hearing the question "Like before?" for what seemed the ten zillionth time that evening, Ami's nerves were a little frayed. But, she finally got where she needed to be and looked over Usagi's shoulder and scanned the list of files. Close to the bottom of the list there was one titled Psycho Induction and it looked promising.   
  
Pointing to the file, Ami said, "Open this one."  
  
"Like before?" Usagi asked while maneuvering the pointer to the indicated file.  
  
Sigh. "Yes, like before."  
  
Click  
  
Usagi moved over to allow Ami to sit in the chair in front of the computer and read as she herself picked up a manga that she had brought along with her to pass the time. Ami was already reading before she took the seat vacated by Usagi, hoping to find a clue on the mental state of the past Sailor Sun.  
  
****************  
  
The test of a few nights ago was successful and the complete set of readings were compiled and uploaded via hyper-space uplink to the council. The warriors of the old Moon Kingdom were powerful, singularly more than a match for any of the super troopers, but the Protectors superior numbers should more than offset this. All that is needed was the "go" date. Until then the pseudo-cat-cat decided it would take some time off and relax, after all once this is over with there would be a plenty of work to do during the rebuilding.  
  
**************  
  
It was slow reading, but informative. Ami sat back in her chair and looked over at Usagi who was sitting on the bed still reading her romance manga without really seeing her. Ami was lost in thought. The girl who was Sailor Sun was apparently raised in isolation from the general public, only having social contact during special events, balls, royal functions and other such things. Sun was also heavily educated in many variety of subjects with special attention paid to those emphasizing honor and loyalty. Sun was trained in the combat arts beginning when she was very young and anything that she might need to know for being a Senshi. The combat training was apparently emotionally and psychically abusive, deliberately so from what she read, leaving the young girl clinging to whoever could give her any form of affection. Sun eventually looked to Queen Serenity for the sought after approval and affection and then eventually became emotionally dependent on the Queen.  
  
In spite of these conditions, it was noted that she was quite outgoing and friendly in behavior. Even if she was restricted in contact with anyone outside the upper royal court and the other Senshi most of the time. She loved to socialize when she had the chance to, and discovered and enjoyed dancing and would dance with whoever would partner with her at the balls that were held periodically. This open friendliness would intwine her in relationships with the other Senshi and she seemed that she grew close towards two of them, Uranus and Neptune. [Hmmmm.... spanking?] Ami shook herself out of that line of thought.  
  
Keeping her a secret was also a key. After all, how can anyone have a lasting relationship with another person that you want to love and trust if you have to keep your true self hidden? It was felt if you didn't really know "how you stacked up" against the other Senshi then that unknown factor would help keep you in line, at least on an emotional level. Like a deterrent for a deterrent.  
  
Emotionally dependent, socially isolated, educated with overbearing sense of honor and trained in the combat arts from an early age. That was the recipe for Sailor Sun.  
  
The most powerful Senshi ever created was controlled by a most unusual upbringing and limited social contact. Even with all the emotional and socially placed safeguards, she was still feared by those who knew of her. So feared, that they were too frighten to use her when they really needed to, they held her back fearing that she would eventually turn on them. A ridiculously powerful weapon, made useless by the fear of her creators.  
  
This answered some of the questions about Sailor Sun of the past, what about now? What kind of person was this Ranma? Surly her life, at least in this life, was far better than what she had in the past. Maybe she should get together with some of the other scouts this weekend and visit Nerima and find out from people who knew Ranma. Ami felt they needed to know more about the type of person they were dealing with.  
  
_________________________  
  
  



	12. Juuban 10 rev 2

This is a revised version of this chapter. I mentioned before I was only somewhat satisfied with the first version. I am much happier with this one. I hope you agree.  
  
I would like to say thanks to everyone who took the time to even say keep going because it does and those who gave constructive criticism to help me get better.  
  
Karibanu, you were right and nailed what I didn't like in my first go round. Your review made me think and rewrite of the first section.  
  
I would like to give a real big thanks Ghost in the Machine for post-reading this and pre-reading the revision and bringing up some points that I didn't even think about for me to tackle. My head is still hurting from it.  
  
Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
I don't own any of these characters or situations. As always the spelling errors are still mine, as are the grammar mistakes.  
________________  
  
Juuban part 10  
  
*************  
It had been a long week for Ranma as she explored the extent of her powers.  
  
Between keeping up with her normal life during the the day, training herself in her Senshi abilities at night, and reflecting on her life in general, Ranma felt more than a little tired. Ranma was relieved to find that joining with the crystal, or what was once her, didn't really change her personality as much as she had feared. It had been almost a week and she felt and thought she was still pretty much herself. Of course there were some subtle things like her new found interest in dancing and a strong desire to seek out places where people her own age hung out, neither one she had had any time to really pursue at the moment. Overall though, she felt better and more sure about herself than she had in a very long time.  
  
During the past week at night, when the rest of the house was asleep, Ranma threw herself into her training. Taking her sword, she'd cut a path to the farside of the Moon to practice, refine and explore her powers. Well, as much as she felt she could safely do.   
  
When Ranma arrived on the Moon, she would compress time, that's what she started calling when she slowed time, and warm up with a few kata's before meditating on what she wants to explore that night. The time compression came it handy for extending her training time, the twelve hours she been spending lasted about 1/50th of a second in the real world time and there seemed to be no adverse effects. Ranma knew somehow she didn't age when she was in her Senshi form, nor did she ever get hungry either. How this was accomplished eluded her, but she accepted it anyway. Ranma also noted that she seem able to pull strength from somewhere, but accepted it in the same way.  
  
It was like knowing how to drive a car, but not really understanding how it worked.  
  
Sitting on her favorite dust covered rock, Ranma meditated about the types of attacks she used to train in in her past life. It was during her first meditation that she remembered several attacks that were designed for distance use. She was eager to try them out since they felt like her ki attacks in the way they were used. These should be easy to pick up on since she had been practicing ki usage for some time now. But where? A term came to her, as these things have been doing since the joining: firing range. Firing range? Oh, well. With that thought, Ranma summoned her sword and cut a path in space/time to the 'firing range', whereever that might be.  
  
Ranma found herself floating in open space far from the Solar System. Some instinct told her that the faint star, to her relative right, no brighter than the surrounding stars, was home. She was far from home, on the edge of the Solar System if not beyond it. Ranma didn't expect to be that far out, but since she was there, she might as well see what she could use for target practice. That's when she noticed her first target as it floated to her left.  
  
An asteroid.  
  
A big asteroid.  
  
Ranma estimated the rock to be about fifteen miles long and roughly five miles across. An impressive example of iron and rock.  
  
[Okay, let's see how this 'solar flare' works] Ranma thought as went to normal time and tapped into her power.  
  
Extending her right arm, Ranma cupped her hand with fingers opened. She stopped herself and thought, [No, I'm too close.]  
  
Backing off about fifty miles from her target, Ranma once again extended her arm mimicking the same position she had taken moments before. Ranma tapped into her power and let it fill her, she then found it's center and channeled it toward the space made by the cup of her opened fingers. The flame of plasma that formed there that was unimpressive looking. Ranma felt just a little disappointed. She then locked onto her target, sensing it by feeling its distortion in the fabric of space because she could no longer see it in the faint light beyond the Solar System. She then let her projectile go with a mental scream of "SOLAR FLARE!"  
  
The results were impressive as Ranma watch energy pour from her outstretched hand and it illuminated its distant target. The flaming ball of plasma resembled a miniature sun that was flying at tremendous speed, getting smaller as it traveled away from Ranma. Then it hit, the solar flare consumed the asteroid which then erupted into a cloud of expanding gas. Vaporized. Nothing but gasses left of what was once iron and rock.  
  
Ranma floated there for a moment, stunned by the sheer power of the attack. An attack that didn't even come close to taxing her limits. In fact, Ranma had held back, wanting to go easy on herself at first before attempting larger moves. This was unexpected. This was huge. What in the hell was she going to use that much power for? Ranma float and thought, [This is too much. I'm going to have to practice on toning it down.] Looking at the still expanding and illuminated cloud of hot gasses, [Toning it down a lot.]  
  
With that and a sigh, Ranma cut a path through space/time to her training grounds on the farside of the Moon again. She compressed time again and began weapons practice. She had discovered that she could form whatever weapon she wanted by just picturing it in her mind , as long as if it was some variation of a manual weapon: swords, staffs, knifes, clubs, etc. Ranma remembered a time when she use to frown on weapon users, now she realized all she was doing was limiting herself. Weapons can be very useful in a life or death fight. Plus the type of weapons she can generate can never be taken from her and used against her.  
  
With this ability Ranma flowed through a kata that she knew by heart, but not from this life, and changed the form of her weapon in smooth, even moves. After moving through various types of swords, staffs and a mace, she found she perferred her "old" favorite, the Solar Sword.  
  
The next night...  
  
Once again on the Moon and sitting on her favorite rock, Ranma was preparing to meditate. Ranma began to wonder why of all the places on the Moon, she always picked this particular barren spot. It was familiar to her somehow, like home or something like that. Ranma felt that there was more out there, more than this, but for some reason she was always was drawn to this place every time.   
  
Ranma decided to find out by concentrating more of her past life and see were it leads. Assuming a crossed leg position and closing her eyes, Ranma grabbed at thin filaments of her memories and started to follow them back, past this life into the last.  
  
Images swirled, different training and drills, trying new things being comforted by the... Queen? Ranma decided to explore that later, pressing backward into her forgotten past she until she hit a mental wall of sorts. A wall? Here in her mind? Why? Curious, Ranma pushed more until the wall began to yield but does not break. She then collected herself before renewing her attack on the barrier in her mind. Putting all her mental energy into it, the mental wall begins to succumb and break and then...  
  
Ranma was little, hiding behind the legs of her mother. Two big men nearby in uniforms were talking to her papa. She didn't understand what was going on, but she knew it involve her. Was she in trouble at school? Why are they talking like that and looking at me?  
  
"Pluto said she is the one. She must be properly trained and conditioned..." one of the men said.  
  
Ranma wasn't paying attention to what the man was saying anymore.   
  
Pluto? Who's Pluto? Did I do something mean to her? Is that what this is all about? If I did, I'll say I'm sorry.  
  
One of the men pulled a scroll out of a pocket. Papa reads it and pales. Why is papa so scared? Mom then grabs me in a bear hug, crying and saying "You can't have her, she's my baby!"  
  
Papa shakes his head. He's crying. Why is he crying? The two big men come and pry me from my mother's arms. I'm frighten! I cry for my papa and mom! The two men carry me out of my house as watch my papa. He is holding back my mom as she out screams my name.  
  
Ranma's eyes snap open. [Oh god, what was that?]  
  
Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself, Ranma thought, [Why didn't I remember this when I joined with the crystal? The wall - it must have represented something, a... may be a memory block that was in the original memory block?] Ranma was now feeling a little nervous, she was exploring unknown territory and she was sure she wouldn't like what she would find.  
  
Ranma finds her center and dived into her past again...  
  
Ranma didn't like this, it hurts. Why are they hurting me? What did I do wrong?  
  
"GET UP!" a mean voice yelled very loudly.  
  
Ranma stood like she'd been shot.  
  
"You are too slow, too weak. Why they thought you would amount to anything is beyond me. Now get out there and run until I tell you to stop. NOW GO!" The mean man yells into her eleven year old face.  
  
Ranma began running, what she really wanted to do was cry. The last time she did that though she got backhanded and ended up on the ground, while insults were thrown at her. Why are they so mean to her? What did she do? Why are they teaching her to fight? I don't want to do this. I wanna go home. I want mom. I want papa.  
  
She ran past a familiar rock.  
  
Ranma's eyes snapped open again. Breathing heavier she looked around more carefully. There was the sun, low in the horizon the dull gray lunar hills in the distance the powdery grey dust that covers everything...  
  
... including the rock she sat upon. The very rock she ran past in her memories.  
  
[Oh god.] Ranma thought as she stood, legs shaking. [Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god.]   
  
Her childhood from her past life - and it wasn't good.  
  
[They took me from my family, they took me away and trained me ... to fight. To be some damn super weapon.] Ranma steamed, then latched onto a name. [Pluto, I remember that man saying Pluto. Damn her! First, she screwed with my life in the past and now this one.]  
  
Ranma was shaking with rage. [That bitch, who in the hell does she think she is? I am so going to hurt her when I see her next time.]  
  
Ranma summoned her sword and head back to Earth, the park to be precise. She had a lot of anger to walk off before turning in for the night.  
  
*****************  
  
Arriving at the park, Ranma allowed her sword to dissipate before walking off. That's when she noticed a white glow around her and thought, [What the hell is this?]   
  
The new development derailed her anger. This mystery grabbed her and demanded her attention. On closer examination of the ground she had just walked on, she noticed it was burnt and smoking in the light of the park lamps. [What in the hell is going on?]  
  
Moving again she noticed that the leading edges of her arm starting to glow. [Huh?] Ranma was intrigued, what could be causing this interesting effect. It was not just a light show, it was generating heat, and a lot of it. Ranma moved again, being more observant to what was happening. She noticed that it wasn't so much her arm that was glowing, but something like a shield or barrier a quarter of an inch from her skin was glowing. [What in the hell is this?]  
  
A close, form fitting warp bubble, was the answer supplied by her brain.  
  
She was pushing around a bubble of warped space in compressed time, creating friction as the air molecules ran into each other on the leading edges.  
  
[A warp bubble? Cool! I wonder if i can do anything with it?] on that thought Ranma imagined the bubble growing, and it responded by mimicking her thoughts. It expanded into a perfect sphere surrounding her. She couldn't see it, but Ranma could sense it. When she moved, she noted that just the edges of the bubble would heat up, everything within was protected.  
  
Then Ranma remembered the dream, the one of destroying a sun, where she used this a shield. Was this what was protecting her in space? If so, where did all the air she breathed come from? [Wait, one problem at a time. What do I do about the heat? I need something to cool it or bleed it off or something.]  
  
Ranma pondered. She thought about different techniques that she knew and the only thing that would be close to useful was the 'Soul of Ice'. [What the heck, everything I do is amplified when I'm like this.]  
  
With that Ranma invoked the 'Soul of Ice' and began to move again. The glow started again and as Ranma poured more effort into the 'Soul of Ice' the glow subsided, then disappeared.   
  
Ranma was then struck by the thought of, if everything was protected by her warp bubble, then is everything moving at the same time she was? A simple experiment proved that everything within Ranma's influence in the warp bubble was indeed moving at the same time relative to Ranma. Ranma bent over and picked up a stick that escaped being burnt and holding it before her, let it drop. It did like any other stick would do to anyone else. She then picked up the stick again and brought her warp bubble close to her, she repeated the experiment. The stick behaved very differently - it stay there hovering seemly in midair, frozen by Ranma's perception in compressed time. Ranma expanded her bubble and the stick immediately fell to earth.  
  
She should have known the results, considering her earlier experiment with the stopwatch.  
  
That's when Ranma thought, [I wonder if I could use this as a weapon of some sort?]  
  
Though Ranma had just arrived back in Juuban from the Moon, she felt it was time for another training trip. She just had to see what she could do with this. With that in mind, Ranma headed out again, cutting a path to a remote section of the outback in Australia (blame "Crocodile Hunter" again). Ranma found that generating the heat wasn't the problem, negating the heat wasn't a problem. Doing something with it was a problem.  
  
She noticed that the mass of heated air collided with something else, it would only go so far before being stopped by another barrier. Ranma decided to concentrate on the barriers and she what she could find out. She discovered she had not just one warp bubble, but several of them layered at various distances from her body. It was like being in the middle of an onion, with several different layers of warped space/time surrounding her.   
  
When Ranma drew her warp bubbles in as close as she could, it was like a second skin. Moving them outward they placed themselves at distances relative to the next layer. Ranma wonder what would happen if she suppress the outer most layer.  
  
Doing so yielded nothing, until she shrugged her shoulders.  
  
A loud sonic boom echoed across the flat plain of the outback.  
  
This made Ranma jump in surprise a bit which yielded another sonic boom. Ranma stood very, very still. Moving one finger on her left hand resulted in a sharp crack that reverberated in the air. Ranma firmed up the outer most barrier and moved her finger again. Nothing. Okay.  
  
Picking the next layer inward, she suppressed that one. Moving her finger yielded no sharp cracking sounds. Ranma pondered and shifted her weight onto one leg, the inertia from that simple movement sent her floating sideways and slightly upward for some distance before gravity reclaimed her. When she hit the ground and bounced a couple of times before coming to a stop. Hmmm.  
  
This was getting more and more interesting. She brought in her warp bubbles and by moving her arms she generated heat by friction. The heat was turning white hot before Ranma funneled the superheated gases through a self made channel created by folding space. This bypassed the warp bubbles allowing the heat to scorch a good part of her little corner of the outback. She could use the heat from the friction as a weapon after all. It turned out it could used as a very nasty one indeed.  
  
Ranma explored the various layers of warped space/time that cocooned her. She found that most affected how she interacted with the "real" space/time around her, some of the bubbles she couldn't influence at all. The layers seem to isolate and regulate her interaction with different parts of "real" space. An interesting development that she decided that she would have to explore more later.  
  
Ranma stopped a moment and considered something else. If the warp bubbles or fields controlled how she interacted with her surroundings, than why the friction? Ranma thought back to what she could recall about her training from her past life. Whenever she did the time compression back then, it was always in space or some other environment that lacked any real atmosphere.   
  
Space. She just realized how much time after she first gotten her powers she spent training in space. It was as if she was built to function mostly in deep space and very little else. If so, then maybe the Techo-mages didn't think it was important to consider friction, after all the average density of deep space is one atom per cubic centimeter.  
  
Techo-mages. That word brought back the memory of what she was thinking before being sidetracked with this new puzzle. Ranma sighed, she was going to deal with that later. She was mentally tired and yearned for bed. Ranma summoned her sword and cut for home.  
  
******************  
  
When she arrived at home directly into the relative privacy of her sleeping area, Ranma shook her head and detransformed. It seemed like every time she discovered and figure out something, it would lead to a new question that she would have to puzzle over, whether it be training or other memories. Well Ranma figured, she would have plenty of time to figure it out, this night she been gone for hours and hours, yet between normal and compressed time the clock on the wall showed she had been gone for all of fifteen minutes. She padded down the hall and bathed quickly and retired for the night.  
  
******************  
  
Ranma was awakened earlier than usual by being thrown out the window, she barely had enough time to twist around and land on her feet. Then one of the Masters begins sparring with her before she had a chance to wipe the sleep out of her eyes. After defeating him, she was allowed to eat breakfast all awhile being lectured about how to be honorable and on how not to be worthless.  
  
It was then off of class where she was taught mathematics, language arts and history - with more examples of brave and honorable fighters who fought to protect the Kingdom. Class always bored her, but she couldn't drift off to sleep like she wanted to, last time she came close to falling asleep she had extra homework and more training assigned to her. Ranma couldn't hide behind other students either, for she was the only one.  
  
The scene shifted...  
  
She was coming! Her favorite person, the only one that was ever nice to her was coming! Ranma was excited! Oh, she wished Auntie would visit more often and stay longer. There she was, in her spartan room, cleaning and straightening what little she had to make sure Auntie wouldn't be disappointed in her. Ranma didn't want to ever disappoint the only person who showed her any type of kindness. There was a knock on the door! She's here!  
  
Ranma composed herself and answered the door. On the other side was an elegantly dressed woman, older than Ranma, that glided through the doorway and enveloped Ranma in a warm hug.  
  
"How are you today?" asked Ranma's Auntie.  
  
"I'm fine. How are you? Oh Auntie Serenity, I'm so happy you're here! What do you want to to today? Are we going to the city? Are you going to teach me more dancing? How's your daughter doing? Are we going to see her too?"  
  
Serenity chuckled at the fifteen year old's rapid fire questions. "Yes, yes we will she everyone today and more later. Today is an important day for you and I wanted to be the one to tell you."  
  
"Important? How?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Well, you have completed your basic training and now, today we are going to the Techo-mages to give you the power that you have earned."  
  
"No more training?" Ranma asked in slight disbelief.  
  
"Oh, sweetheart, there will always be training but, not like you have had it. And... you will be closer to me." Serenity finished with a smile.  
  
"Closer to you?" Ranma's eyes widened with excitement. "I'll get to see you more often?" Serenity nodded her head, Ranma hugged the older woman again. "That would be wonderful! When do we leave?"  
  
"As soon as your packed. Here let me help you."  
  
Ranma never had much, she had even less since coming to this place. Excitedly she packed what she did have, being aided by Serenity. Toting her bag over her shoulder, Ranma left the room that had been her home for a little over ten years.  
  
She didn't look back.  
  
The scene shifted...  
  
Auntie Serenity was holding Ranma. "Sweetheart, I want to tell you how sorry I am."  
  
"Auntie?" The now seventeen year old looking Ranma asked, confused.  
  
"I know you have had a hard life. I'm sorry. I should not have allowed it. I should have spoke out against what they were doing to you," Serenity continued.  
  
"Wh... what do you mean Auntie?"  
  
"I mean I could have stop it. I'm sorry. My advisors and councilors convinced me that it was necessary. I thought they were wrong , but didn't do anything to stop it. Can you forgive me." Serenity looked at Ranma in the eyes, with tears flowing from her eyes.  
  
"Stop what?" Ranma asked, slightly panicked.  
  
"They... tore you from you family, trained you cruelly and didn't even think to treat you as a human being, just a weapon. I could have changed that, but in my folly I didn't. Can you forgive me for being weak?" Tears were following down Serenity's cheeks.  
  
Ranma sat and thought, then gather her Auntie into her arms. "It's alright, Auntie. Please don't cry. I... I forgive you."  
  
Sobbing quietly, Serenity hugged Ranma back even harder and whispered softly in her ear, "Thank you."  
  
The scene shifted...  
  
Ranma held Serenity's body close to hers, trying to will her to stay alive longer. Serenity gasped as Ranma begged, "Auntie don't die, please."  
  
"There is nothing you can do for me..." Serenity croaked out.  
  
"No!" Ranma's eyes filled with tears, "There must be something!"  
  
"Y... yes."  
  
""Tell me, please!"  
  
"Seal them away," with that Serenity was still.  
  
Ranma felt pain like never before...  
  
*********************  
  
Ranma woke with her alarm clock buzzing. Turning it off and brushing the few strands of red hair that manage to tickle her nose. Ranma stretched and thought about the dream she had just had.  
  
[My life just keeps getting better and better,] Ranma thought to herself sarcastically.   
  
Ranma rolled and put up her futon. She then dressed in her morning workout clothes and headed for the stairs. Ranma thought about the revelations of last night and a cool anger grew within her. Basking in the strong sense of being used and abused in both her lives made her anger turn hot, not the "out of control must have vengeance at any cost" anger, but a controlled and focused anger.  
  
She was whole now, but that seemed like a small consolation now considering what she had been through in both her lives. Used and abused, that what it was. The hand-to-hand and weapons Masters of her past life. Genma, Cologne, and a host of other people from her ten year training trip in this life contributed to the feeling.   
  
Then there was Happosai messing her mind and Pluto tampering with her life in general, the later one in two lives and then... Ranma didn't want to think about it anymore. It would leave her too angry to practice. She stopped at a thought.  
  
Serenity used her too, but she was sorry for doing that and said so. Ranma knew somehow that Serenity was sincere.  
  
Ranma was amazed how close both her lives seemed so much alike.  
  
Downstairs, Ranma was beginning to rearrange the dinning area when Akiko entered the room from the kitchen area. She greeted her.  
  
"Oh. Good morning Ranma. Getting ready for your morning workout I see."  
  
"Yeah, I guess..." Ranma voice trailed off, as Akiko studied her.  
  
"Ranma, what's wrong dear?"  
  
Ranma looked into the hazel depths of Akiko's eyes and felt nothing but concern for her well being. Ranma sighed internally. She didn't really want to burden Akiko so much with her problems, but Akiko had been so helpful in putting Ranma's problems into perspective. "Granny," Ranma began, "I... I found out something that bothers me and I don't know what I should do about it."  
  
"Would it help to talk about it?" Akiko asked.  
  
"Yes. Definitely, but not right now. I have to get it right up here," Ranma pointed to her head, "before I can talk about it."  
  
"Whenever your ready dear. You go right on ahead and practice while I putt about in the kitchen."  
  
Ranma using her self developed "Chestnut speed room rearranging" quickly cleared the dinning area of tables and chairs. She the stood in the center and focused her mind on the coming exercises. Ranma then began with a series of katas.  
  
********************  
  
"Now can you talk about it?" Akiko asked as she help Ranma off the floor.  
  
"I guess it's bothering me more than I thought," Ranma answered sheepishly.  
  
"I can always tell when it's something major. You usually don't fall like that unless it is."  
  
"Yeah, well it has something to do with my past life," Ranma said while easing her sore posterior into a chair.  
  
"Let me get some tea and you can tell me about it," Akiko said while heading back into the kitchen.  
  
A few moments both women were discussing Ranma's problems and Akiko would listen and give constructive advice where she felt it was warranted. One things that Akiko said that stuck in Ranma's mind was "Do not be ruled by the past, instead learn from your mistakes and then move on with your life." It sounded good to Ranma, who felt she was a whole person now and free of the past even while striving to remember the mistakes in both her lives. Ranma was determined to learn from the past and not be a slave to it.  
  
When Ranma discussed how she felt about being used, Akiko looked at her right in the eyes, her hazel eyes boring into Ranma's blue, and told her that "No one can take advantage of you without your permission." Ranma thought about it and saw what Akiko was driving at. Ryoga took advantage of Ranma's promise and used it against her, Nabiki took advantage of - well just about anything she could get her hands on and used it against her, and Genma - she did not even want to go there. Genma used Ranma for everything from a bargaining chip to slave labor just so he could sit on his ass. And Ranma accepted it! She let them get away with doing things like that to her that no one in their right mind would tolerate! What the hell was she thinking? Ranma now was sure of one thing: she wasn't going to put up with being treated like that any longer.  
  
She would make her own life and she would never let herself be controlled like she was again. Ranma felt she would answer to no one but her own sense of honor and nothing else, well maybe Granny - but that's different, but definitely not by Genma or anyone like him.  
  
**********************  
  
The rest of Ranma's week was made up of training at night and talking with Akiko in the mornings, the combination of the two made Ranma grow and change in a relatively short time. Happosai was be going to surprised. Ranma wasn't going to be the same Ranma he was used to tormenting and degrading. This was going to be a new and more dangerous Ranma.  
  
********************  
  
Ranma woke with a yawn and a stretch while turning off her alarm. Reaching up to lift the blinds up to take a peek at the outside world, she was pleased from what little of the sky she could see, that it looked like it was going to be a clear day unlike the off and on drizzle of the past two days. Rolling and putting away her futon, she went down the hall, knocked on Michiko's door and then entered. Michiko was still asleep, doing a good imitation of a lump on the floor as Ranma kneeled down and gently shook Michiko on the shoulder.  
  
"Sis," Ranma whispered.  
  
Groan  
  
"Sis," Ranma repeated.  
  
"H-huh? What? Oh, morning Ranma. What time is it?" Michiko asked while rubbing the sleep out of her eye.  
  
"Early. Like you asked me to. I'll get the hot water going in the bath and meet you there," Ranma softly replied as she stood and headed for the door.  
  
Groan "Remind me never to volunteer to help Hitomo at the school this early in the morning again," Michiko said sleepily.  
  
"You wanted to help her with the School Art Show. A promise is a promise," Ranma said while exiting her sister's room as Michiko groaned in response.  
  
Her sister. Ranma felt very comfortable calling her that. It started yesterday, when making there way out of the class at the end of the school day when Ranma told Michiko that she would be a little late getting home for work. Michiko had said not to be too long or Granny would worry. Ranma smiled and replied "Don't worry, sis. I won't be too long." in a most natural way. Michiko smiled in return and called Ranma "Sis" as well. It made Ranma feel warm inside in a way she never felt before.  
  
After bathing together, dressing and leading a still sleepy Michiko down the stairs for breakfast, Ranma started thinking about what she had to do later in the day. Ranma had plans for the afternoon...  
  
After the half day of school let out, Ranma planned confront the masters of Anything Goes over the future of the school. Ranma in her long hours of isolation while training had time to think about what she was going to say and do. She decided on giving the masters two choices: they could change the way they sought candidates and seal the mind altering junk away or she could just kill them all and be done with it.  
  
That last choice was one that Ranma would like to avoid, but if it came to it, Ranma was prepared to carry out that threat, then allow them to continue as they were. Ranma had killed before, the demon in the park, so the ideal of killing evil didn't bother her. What the masters were doing was definitely evil as Ranma saw it and she was determined to put a stop to it. It was against her better judgment, letting them live anyway, but Ranma wanted to give the masters a chance to redeem themselves. So with that, Ranma decided to let them agree with her demands or she would just kill them...  
  
... she already had the perfect place on the Moon picked out for their bodies if it came to that.  
  
********************  
  
Elsewhere...  
  
Pluto was alarmed. Since last Sunday she hadn't been able to observe Ranma directly or indirectly. Ranma had always been difficult to watch, but now she was proving to be impossible. It was as if Ranma somehow managed to "jam" her attempts to keep tabs on her. Pluto remembered back in the Silver Millennium, Sailor Sun was impossible to track using the Gates of Time.  
  
Pluto was able to detect other things, like the very minor earthquake, an increase in the distortion in space/time where someone or something was manipulating it, and the use of incredible energy on the far side of the Moon, but nothing she could specifically trace back to Ranma. But she knew it couldn't be anyone but Ranma.  
  
As far as Pluto was concerned this was still not good. Not good at all. She was growing more concerned, wondering about Ranma's mental state.  
  
The Gates of Time were useless now for looking into the future because the timelines were so split and fragmented that it was impossible to figure out what was going to happen. It was either the First Enemy's or Ranma's doing and she couldn't tell which. If Ranma had come into her powers and started using them, it could be good thing or bad thing. Pluto hoped it was a good thing, using the fact that the Earth was still here as evidence.  
  
All she could do was wait and watch for anything to happen.  
  
*****************  
After class let out, Ranma ducked into a quiet and empty restroom to transform, she then willed her Senshi uniform into a Juuban school uniform as camouflage for the coming meeting. Leaving the school grounds after parting with Michiko, Ranma began roof hopping toward the roof of the building where she first met Happosai and the other masters last week. She was feeling a little cocky about what was to come, but quickly reeled that feeling in not wanting it to cloud her judgment.  
  
Approached the roof, she compressed time to scout out the area. There they were huddled in a group, probably talking to each other about what questions that Ranma could possibly be asking of them. Ranma got her first good look at the masters of Anything Goes. There was Happosai and Charles who she met before in the park, just before she considered... ending everything. She studied the two white haired women, they were old but not too old looking. They had the same features, dark eyes flat nose and thin lips, if it were not for the differences in height and build, they could pass as twins. The other men were varied in their appearance, there was a short portly man with a scowl on his fat face of possible Chinese descent. The last man in the group was slightly taller and much thinner. He look American with graying hair tied in a pony tail. He also was the only one that wore a pair of square rimmed glasses.  
  
Ranma scanned them and detected various hidden weapons and other magic items on their persons. Ranma carefully cataloging who had what before roof hopping away a few blocks and going back into normal time. She then approached the roof in the open this time. When she arrived the six masters of Anything Goes were lined up in a row facing her as she alighted on the graveled roof, making a crunching noise as she did so.  
  
Little did they know it was going to be more like demands they would be hearing today.  
  
"I see you are punctual, we like that in a candidate," said the portly chinese man.  
  
"I asked you all here to ask you a few questions," Ranma said, said in a somewhat subdued, but matter of fact manner.  
  
"Go ahead, my boy. What do you want to know?" Happosai asked while taking a drag from his pipe.  
  
"I would like to know if these tests you give your candidates were something you all came up with or was it something that was passed down from one master to the next?" Ranma asked  
  
"It has been a tradition in the school since its inception. Everyone goes through it. We consider the test a rite of passage," one of the women answered, rather pompously.  
  
"So, by acting like a bunch of irresponsible idiots who nearly kill people by hazing, manipulating their minds and physically abusing them, you plan on continuing to use unnecessary and really stupid ways test candidates," Ranma shot back, putting a little venom in her voice. "Don't you guys ever stop to think that just because it was a good ideal 7000 years ago that it might not be a good idea today?'  
  
"Don't be so judgmental. You know what's at stake. What would you have us do?" the other white haired woman shot back.  
  
"I'm not sure, but I know with 7000 years of knowledge at your disposal - there has got to be a better way than taking people to the edge of insanity and messing with their minds. Why not try and follow examples of other schools in awarding levels of skill as they are earned and going from there?" Ranma snorted at the woman.  
  
"Ranma, I take from your attitude that you have decided not to accept the honor of becoming a apprentice master of Anything Goes," Happosai said as he sighed heavily.  
  
"I didn't say that, I simply meant that some things are going to change."  
  
"And who are you to dictate to us, the masters of Anything goes anything?"  
  
"The one who holds the keys to the entire knowledge of Anything Goes in her grasp. Go ahead Happosai, try going to the library."  
  
All eyes widened at that. "You're bluffing." the short man said with an unusual Chinese accent.  
  
"Try me," was her response.  
  
Happosai reached into his suit and pulled out his link and closed his eyes and concentrated. After a moment he opened his eyes and angrily demanded, "What did you do?'  
  
"Not much, just pocketed the library as an example of what I can do. You will comply with my wishes."  
  
"I don't take orders from a snot nosed punk like you, I'll teach you respect," Happosai retorted. Ranma's senses screamed trouble, she instinctually compressed time.  
  
Everything froze around Ranma. Sensing something behind her she looked over her shoulder to find a distortion in the air about four feet off the ground, about two feet from her back. Her feelings from the fabric of space were telling her that there should be mass there. On closer inspection of the distortion, she found Happosai in mid leap hiding in a behind a blanket of ki, with arms outstretched toward where Ranma's head would have been. Ranma looked back and forth between the two Happosai's, one frozen in mid leap and the other still standing where he was with the other masters. Going over to the one that was standing, she detected no mass from him. Looking closer with other senses that she had just became aware of in the last week she discovered that this Happosai was made of ki.  
  
Ranma was impressed, a decoy - clever little bastard.  
  
This made Ranma wonder how times when she fought Happosai in the past, it was nothing more than her fighting a decoy.  
  
She went over to the masters and implemented part of her plan.  
  
************  
  
Standing behind the five masters, Ranma sped up time again to normal. Happosai landed on the gravel coated roof on his belly with a splat and the other masters looked around in front of them and assumed defensive positions.  
  
It was at that point when Ranma cleared her throat and spoke, "Well, you are a sneaky bastard, aren't you Happosai?" she said loudly, startling the six who then spun to face her.  
  
"How did you move so fast?" Happosai demanded.  
  
Ranma ignored the question and continued, "Are you going to accept my demands?" as she kept on her toes, ready for any tricks the other masters may have up their sleeves, that is if they had any sleeves.  
  
"What demands are those, boy. I don't recall you making any demands," Happosai said while angrily picking himself off the ground.  
  
"True, you were so intent on "teaching me respect" I didn't get the chance to tell you my offer, it is simply this: change your ways... or else."  
  
"Or else what, little girl?" the tall black man known to Ranma as Charles asked, "You are not in any position to dictate to us..."  
  
"Aren't you all a little cold?" Ranma asked interrupting Charles.  
  
They all blinked and looked down at themselves, all they had on were their underwear, not even their shoes. As one they looked up at Ranma.  
  
"How?" one of the woman asked.  
  
"Oh the same way I'm going to do this to Happosai..." Ranma spoke as she once again compressed time.  
  
Happosai readied himself for an attack. He felt a slight wind blowing but nothing else. All Ranma did was look like she wavered and stood exactly, or close enough to where she was.  
  
"Changed your mind, boy?" Happosai taunted.  
  
"Nope, and I must say you look very cute." Ranma said, her voice full of mirth.  
  
Happosai eyes widened and he looked down at himself again. He was in a purple tight mini skirt and matching shirt, he also found wearing high heels were very uncomfortable. His ears were pierced! He was also wearing a bra! How? This was impossible! No one could move that fast, how in the hell was Ranma pulling this off?  
  
"These are my demands," Ranma startled Happosai out of his thoughts, "you find a different way to test your candidates and I'll allow you all to live and have the library back. Also all the mind altering pressure points are to be sealed away, they are evil and they should not be part of the school to begin with. If you don't, then you can start writing your last wills and testaments for all I care."  
  
"You dare speak to us in such a manner? What's to stop us from going after you and yours? The Library is important and we will take whatever steps necessary to wrestle it back from you." said the short, stocky man who spoke for the first time with his arms crossed over his chest, in a way that reminded Ranma of Genma.  
  
"Wrong thing to say..." Ranma answered while compressing time again.  
  
Ranma and the man who threaten Ranma just disappeared, Ranma returned to about where she started after a few minutes passed.  
  
"What happened to Master Wang?" the shorter of the white haired women asked very, very nervously.  
  
"He is probably swimming towards shore after I put him in the middle of Tokyo bay." Ranma paused before continuing, "Listen, this is how its going to be - find another way or you can kiss yourselves goodbye..."  
  
The five masters, four in their underwear and one in drag just stared at her and blinked.  
  
"... and remember, I know how to find you, if you even think about doing anything stupid. I. Will. Kill. You." Ranma finished with a very cute and winning smile.  
  
"Ranma," Happosai began, "give us a moment, please."  
  
"Can you go and bring Master Wang back, please?" The taller of the women asked, almost pleadingly.  
  
"Why should I do that?" was Ranma's reply.  
  
"Don't you care if he drowns or not?" the thin man with glasses asked, "He is not that strong of a swimmer."  
  
"He threatened me and the people I love and care about, he is lucky I gave him a chance to live and learn from his mistake. I will not be so merciful next time, if he survives this." Ranma finished her answer with her eyes glowing with power, like two small blue suns blazing from her face. The masters involuntarily took a step backward away from Ranma.  
  
"I will not be screwed with anymore, and I will not allow any of you to screw with other people like you did me - understand?" Ranma finished dangerously.  
  
The five remaining masters on the roof, were frozen in shock.  
  
"Well?" Ranma asked impatiently.  
  
After what seem like an eternity, Happosai stood in front of the other four and looked at each in the eye, then announced "We agree, if you let us have access to the library so we can do research in other ways to test candidates."  
  
"No."  
  
Happosai looked exasperated, "How can you expect us..."  
  
Ranma cut him off. "Between the five of you, maybe six if the other one hadn't drowned or gotten eaten by sharks yet, should be able to come up with something." Ranma's blue eyes harden, glowing slightly again with hidden power, "You have no choice."  
  
The small group backed up further and looked nervously at Happosai. After a moment, Happosai took one step forward and bowed, "We accept, and on our honor we will not do anything - stupid." Raising from his bow, he looked at Ranma with a little fear in his eyes, he swallowed and asked, "If we complete this task, will you give us back our library?'  
  
Ranma nodded, "You have my word. And as for sealing the mind-altering pressure points?  
  
"Consider it done. How about my offer of becoming my heir?" he asked.  
  
"Ask me again, after you are done with your first task."  
  
Happosai sighed and nodded his little bald head.  
  
"Oh, before I go... " Ranma announced, "Here."  
  
With that Ranma vanished from the watchful eye of the anything Goes masters and left a pile of their clothing in her place.  
  
For Ranma, who was already blocks away, giggled as the feeling of taking change for a change filled her with glee.  
  
***************  
  
Elsewhere in Tokyo...  
  
It was a 35 minute trip to Nerima by rail and another 20 minutes by bus to get to an area near the Tendo Dojo. When they first stepped off the bus, they noticed some of the buildings were patched here and there and other evidence of huge battles were scattered all over the place. Few of the repairs were fairly new, but many others were markedly older.  
  
"Remember the cover story we worked out and stick with it." Ami reminded the others.  
  
"Don't worry, we have it covered - right?" Rei answered while glancing at Usagi as the others nodded their heads.  
  
"Let's find out where we need to go." Minako said while Ami removed a map from her back pocket.  
  
After getting orientated with a map they had brought with them, they made their way to a zone between Furinkan High and the Tendo dojo to look into the area restaurants, figuring if Ranma ate out it would be near where she lived or went to school. It would be a good start, they figured, to find out if anyone remembered her and could tell them anything they knew on Ranma, subtly of course.  
  
The first two stops yielded not much more than Ranma was a hardy eater and how much the owners missed his business. On the third stop, the Cat Cafe, a purple-haired Chinese waitress was excited that they mentioned Ranma's name and called him her "airen". She then demanded what the girls knew about "him". This is when the cover story that Ami and the girls worked out earlier came in handy, of hearing about the great martial artists Ranma and Ranko. Makoto wanted to challenge and spar with them to test her skill. Even though the strange and aggressive girl was satisfied by their story, they were sent off with a warning not to become "obstacles".  
  
Overall, a pretty unsettling experience for the five girls.  
  
Leaving the restaurant, before getting a chance to eat, they decided to switch tactics and ask about Ranko Tendo, who they knew was also Ranma, that had swept the last Martial Arts Home Economics meet. Maybe it would be safer, especially after the purple hair girl seemed so possessive.  
  
Walking along the lightly crowded sidewalk, they picked another eatery name Ucchan's to try their luck at fishing for information. Upon entering the Ucchan's they were greeted by a lovely waitress who led them to a sizable table near the center of the dinning area. Looking at the just passed out menus, the girls decided that they would eat here as well as subtly ask around about Ranko Tendo. The place was nice, nicer that the last place they attempted to scope out. The restaurant had a counter set up with a grill in front of it so people could watch their food being prepared and manning the grill was a handsome young man with long hair tied in a ponytail.  
  
"Waitress?" Ami asked in her most polite voice.  
  
"Yes miss?" The waitress answered with a slight bow.  
  
"Can you tell us where the Tendo Dojo is?"  
  
"Yes I can, If you don't mind me asking what business you have there?"  
  
"I'm going to challenge Ranko Tendo to a judo match. I heard she's the best there is and I want to see how I measure up," Makoto answered.  
  
"Oh dear, Ranma - I mean Ranko doesn't live there anymore and please don't ask the cook, she just starting to get over him."  
  
"Him?"  
  
"Her... I mean her. Just promise not to say anything to the chef, please?" The waitress asked again.  
  
The five girls nodded in consent.  
  
"Thank you. Is there anything else I can do for you?"  
  
"Yes," Usagi look at her with a slight tilt of her head to one side, "Why are you dressed as a girl?"  
  
"It was the way I was raised miss." was the slightly tense, but polite reply.  
  
"Oh. Oh well, I'll have the seafood special, please. "Usagi continued as if nothing happened.  
  
After the waitress completed taking the orders and walked away, Rei leaned over and asked Usagi, "What was that all about?"  
  
"You didn't notice?" getting a blank stare from Rei, "Our waitress is a guy."  
  
"No way."  
  
"Ask him."  
  
Rei thought about it, then decided to let it go.  
  
Unnoticed to all of them a potted plant came up to the table.  
  
"Are you looking for Ranma?" a voice from nowhere said.  
  
The girls at the table looked around. "Huh?" Rei said.  
  
"Are you looking for Ranma?" the voice repeated.  
  
The girls blink-blinked, before Ami asked, "Did the potted plant just talk?"  
  
Minako, who was sitting nearest the said object, nodded her head fanatically. "I think so, what do you want me to do?"  
  
From the soil of the pot, a head of a girl emerged. "I just want to know if you're looking for Ranma."  
  
"EEEEEEEK!" Usagi cried, "There's a head in this pot!"  
  
"Tsubasa! You jackass! What have I said about scaring the customers?!" The cook approach the table with a... very large spatula in hand.  
  
"Oh my beloved Ukyou!" the girls head in the pot cried, "I was just asking them about Ranma and..."  
  
"Don't ever mention that jackass' name to me again! Now get out!' the cook screamed as he whacked the potted plant out through the door that was being held open by the waitress.  
  
The five girls at the table just sat in silence as they watched the strange scene unfold before them. The cook turned to the girls and asked, "What do you know about Ranma?" waving his oversize spatula in front of them.  
  
"N... n... nothing. Nothing at all. We were asking about a Ranko Tendo and this plant walks up to us and asks us about a Ranma. Th... th... that's all that happened." Ami stammered out.  
  
The cook look deflated, then returned to his spot behind the grill.  
  
Makoto leaned forward into the center of the table, "What the hell was that all about?"  
  
"You're asking me?" Ami said.  
  
"Why is the cook dressed as a boy?"Usagi posed the question to the just returning waitress.  
  
"That's a bit of a long story, and I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say. Let's just say she was hurt by someone she loved," the waitress answered while setting down the orders.  
  
The girls sighed at this dismissal, and began eating their food.  
  
After leaving Ucchan's the girls were arguing about what to do next. Rei just wanted to head straight for the Tendo Dojo and demand answers. Ami wanted to keep as low a profile as they could. They didn't want word somehow getting back to Ranma that someone was looking into her past. So after a small debate it was decided to head in the general direction of the Tendo dojo and ask people along the way where it was and about Ranko to try to glean information that way. It was hopefully a way of innocently asking questions about Ranma without raising any suspicions.  
  
The first person they ran across just gave them an odd look and moved along muttering something about "looking for that loony bin", the second person carrying a bokken declared his undying love for Ranko, his missing pig tailed goddess and begged for any information of her where abouts.  
  
"We don't know where she is, I just want to spar with her," Makoto said.  
  
"Oh what a cruel fate to have befallen my beloved to be taken from my loving arms by that vile sorcerer," the dark haired boy said while covering his face with his forearm and weeping dramatically.  
  
"Sorcerer?" Makoto asked as the other girls gathered closer to listen.  
  
"Aye, the sorcerer Saotome... ah, I can't say that anymore, for my faithful ninja has informed me that he was throw out of his clan. No doubt because they finally caught him using black magic or some other dishonorable trickery."  
  
"Ranma, a sorcerer?" Makoto asked.  
  
"Yes, the boor was a practitioner sorcery and black magic. It was the only way that the cur could have possibly defeated me, the rising star of the Kendo world, upperclassman Tatewaki Kuno, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High." There was a pause as the boy held his bokken up high and the sound of thunder was heard in the distance. "It is a pity that the scoundrel didn't meet his fate at the end of my righteous and nobel blade, for I could have freed my pigtailed goddess from his slavery."  
  
"Pigtailed goddess?" Minako said.  
  
"Yes, the lovely and robust pigtailed girl, who was enslaved by the sorcery of Ranma. It wasn't until the Martial Arts Home Economics mewt that I discovered her true name of Ranko. Up until then, the vile Ranma forced her to use his own fowl name in place of her own."  
  
The five girls blinked as one.  
  
"Well... thanks for the info, we'll be on our way," Makoto said, getting a bad feeling about this boy.  
  
"Tis no problem to assist a lovely and obviously noble person as yourself. You were going to the Tendo's in hope of sparing with the pigtail girl were you not?"  
  
Makoto nodded, but remain silent as alarm bells started ringing in her head.  
  
"Alas, you won't find her there. However, do not despair oh lovely and daring ponytailed warrior maiden. I will accept your challenge in her place, and if you win I will permit you to date with me!" with that Kuno charged at Makoto with bokken held high. Makoto sidestepped quickly as the other girls scattered and tripped Kuno as he passed who then face planted hard onto the sidewalk sending him into a daze.  
  
That didn't hurt, he mumbled before becoming still.  
  
"What a weirdo," Makoto commented as they walked away.  
  
With a ego the size of Japan, Rei added.  
  
"More like an idiot," shot Minako.  
  
Or plain nuts, Ami added some more.  
  
"I think he's just mentally detached from reality," said Usagi.  
  
The others just looked at Usagi as they walked peacefully from the scene, until Makoto was grabbed from behind.  
  
"Ahh my ponytailed warrior! You of..." he didn't get to finish as Makoto twisted in his grasp and with a upper cut to the jaw, sent him high into the air. She left him unconscious, hanging high in a tree, dangling from a branch.  
  
Impressive, considering she was not even transformed at the time.  
  
Moving away more quickly from the scene, they crossed paths with a girl wearing a short black skirt and with matching ribbons in her hair walking in the opposite direction who suddenly declared, "Oh how cute! Maxwell, Maxwell!" and proceeded in trying to steal one of the "meatballs" off Usagi's head, not realizing that it was an attached fixture. Much hair pulling ensued.  
  
"Whaaa! Let go of my hair!"Usagi cried as she tried to hang onto her hair with one hand while the other arm flailed about.  
  
"Give me my Maxwell. Oh, Maxwell, Azusa will save you!" the strange girl cried in an annoyingly cute way.  
  
It took all four of the remaining Juuban girls to separate Usagi from her attacker that was attempting to remove her hairdo and crying for "Maxwell". Then it took more doing, but they managed, to "persuade" the hyper energetic girl to leave Usagi alone. Usagi was rubbing her head to ease the pain during the "persuasion" part wondering who in the heck was Maxwell.  
  
While the strange girl ran off bawling, and calling them all "meanies", all five were startled by a loud cry of "Where in the hell am I now?" Spinning around they spotted a well formed, strong looking teenaged man with a bandana around his head, carrying a very large backpack with an umbrella mounted on it and looking around, confused.  
  
"Um? Can we help you?" Minako ventured.  
  
The bandana clad boy blinked a few time and looked at them, then asked sheepishly, "Ahh.. Heh, heh... could you tell me where I am?"  
  
"You're in Nerima." Minako replied carefully, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Nerima? No! If I get caught here - she'll - no! Damn you Ranma! This is all your fault!" With that cry, he took off down the street and disappeared.  
  
The five girls from Juuban stood there looking at the spot where the strange boy was just seconds before and blink-blinked as one. A quiet two minutes passed before Rei cleared her throat and turned toward Ami, "Ami, what in the hell is going on around here?"  
  
"You're asking me?" Ami said, exasperated.  
  
Rei opened her mouth to say something more but was interrupted by Makoto screaming "Pervert!" and turned just in time to see the bokken carrying boy from before sail over a building. Makoto was in a finishing pose that left no doubt that it was she who sent him on his way.  
  
After that little scene, everyone decided to head straight for the Tendo Dojo and asked the residents there about Ranko. Approaching the dojo, which was enclosed in a high wall they heard someone yelling from within. Stopping and looking at each other they wondered if this was such a good ideal after all, but after taking all this time to get here they might as well. At the door, Minako screwed up the courage to knock on the door, the rest trailed behind, readying for anything.  
  
A very tired looking woman in her late teens or early twenties with long brown hair, wearing an apron answered the door, "May I help you?" she asked in a voice that was flat and filled with false cheer.  
  
"Um..." Makoto stuttered, "we... ah... came to see a Ranko Tendo. Is she in?'  
  
The older girl at the door took a crestfallen look on her face, "I'm sorry," she whispered sadly while her head drooped. "She hasn't live here in quite some time."  
  
"I see... " Makoto replied  
  
"Ohh look! A cute little pig!" Usagi interrupted, while bending over to pick up a small black pig with a strangely familiar bandanna around its neck.  
  
Suddenly the girl at the door head shot up as her eyes hardened. She then stormed up to Usagi and addressed the pig in her arms. "You know what I'll do to you if you ever show your face here again. Do you want me to carry out that threat?"  
  
The pig's eyes widen before bolting from Usagi's arms and racing down the street before disappearing.  
  
"What the hell was that all about?" Rei demanded.  
  
The woman of the house turned toward Rei and tiredly answered, "I'm sorry, it's a bit of a long story. I don't mean to be rude, but you came at a very difficult time. Ranko doesn't live here anymore and I have no way of contacting her."  
  
The women then moved back toward the door and spoke in a way that brooked no argument, "I'm sorry for being rude, but I can't ask you in or help you, good day."  
  
"Hold on Kasumi," said a voice from within the house. "Why are you all so interested in Ranko?'  
  
Makoto spoke up, "Well, she won the last Martial Arts Home Economics meet and I wanted to see first hand how good she really is. Can you help us?"  
  
The new girl at the door eyed the five speculatively.  
  
"Well, if your interested in any information on her, I'm afraid... I can't help you. I've had some... difficulties a few months back and I can't... ah, compromise my position," the new girl said with arms crossed in front.  
  
"Nabiki," the older of the two said softly, "I'm sure there's something you can do. Maybe they can help you find Ranma and then you could tell him how sorry you are," as she finished with a hopeful look.  
  
"But... I'm sorry Kasumi, my lawyer advised against even giving information away. I dug a pretty good hole for myself and I don't want to make it any deeper."  
  
The Juuban girls stood, transfixed by the conversation.  
  
You're right, but you wouldn't have been in this situation if it wasn't for your... extra curricular activities to begin with. the older girl admonished.  
  
We been through this a dozen times, Kasumi. Nabiki snapped, enough that it make the five girls at the door back up a bit, If daddy wasn't such a worthless basket case and provided for this family like a responsible adult would have, I wouldn't have had to do the things I did to bring money into this household.  
  
But, he hasn't recovered from mother's death and...  
  
That's not an excuse! It's been over ten years! He deserted this family to fend for itself, I did the best I could, now WE have to deal with it.  
  
The older girl sighed, and became aware of the guests at the doorway again.  
  
Kasumi turned to the girls at the door, "I'm sorry, but we can't help you. I don't mean to be rude, but as I said earlier - this is a difficult time. Good day." With that the door was closed softly.  
  
The five girls stood there for a moment, looking at the closed door before moving off.  
  
*****************  
  
Later, eating at a eggroll stand near the bus stop, the five girls sat at a table and tried to puzzle together what kind of person Ranma was from what little they discovered so far on this trip. From what they heard Ranma was a boy, a girl, a sorcerer, a goddess, a pervert, the most honorable man that ever lived, a great martial artist, someone you depended on, a joke, a jackass, an airen and a cash cow. All that rolled up into one person.  
  
"I don't think everyone is talking about the same person," Minako ventured.  
  
"I think they are." Ami said, "It's just that everyone has such radially different views on Ranma that no one agrees."  
  
The girls sat there in silence, thinking.  
  
"This isn't getting us anywhere," Rei sighed. "How can we find out anything on Ranma if we can't find...  
  
"Excuse me, did I hear you mention Ranma?" a girl wearing a sundress with shoulder length brown hair interrupted carefully.  
  
"Yes." Makoto said, remembering their cover story, "I came all this way to spar with either Ranma or Ranko and I can't find anyone who knows their whereabouts or tell me anything about them."  
  
"Well, I can't help you find them, but I can tell you about them. My name is Sayuri. You see..." before the girl could go any further she was interrupted.  
  
"GENMA! You come back here and face your punishment like a man!" A woman in a kimono waving a sword dashed by as she chased a... large panda... around a corner. The five girls from Juuban blink-blinked at what they saw. Then they noticed the lack of response from the people sitting at other tables to the outrageous scene.  
  
"Umm. Was that a panda we just saw?" Ami asked, nervous at the situation.  
  
"Yes," the girl picked up without missing a beat. "That woman was Ranma's mother, the panda was his father."  
  
"Mother...?" Minako muttered.  
  
"Father...?" Rei muttered also.  
  
"He's sooo cute!" Usagi said.  
  
"Yes, Nabiki told her about Ranma and his curse last month and she has been chasing him ever since," Sayuri said. "But, he's not very bright, he keeps going back to the dojo."  
  
"The dojo?" Ami asked.  
  
"The Tendo Dojo, that's where he's been living for almost a year now," the girl answered.  
  
"Ranma's father is a panda?' Rei inquired.  
  
"Not really, it's just the curse." Sayuri answered with a straight face.  
  
The five girls looked up at the local girl and blinked again. They all knew of the curse since Pluto confirmed Ranma's story Saturday night, but hearing it confirmed again from someone else was... slightly frightening. Ami took the initiative and asked, "Would you like to sit with us? It sounds like quite a story."  
  
"You don't know half of it, since Ranma left, Akane, that's was his fiancé, has been depressed. Yuka has been over there almost every day cheering her up," Sayuri said while taking an empty seat.  
  
"What can you tell us about Ranma?"  
  
"Well, about - I don't know, a year ago let's say, Ranma and his dad showed up and..." Sayuri began telling a summary of what she knew of Ranma life from his arrival to the Herb incident that led to Ranma's departure from Nerima.  
  
"All this is for real?" Ami asked.  
  
"As real as I can figure. Between listening to Akane tell us about what was going on and buying information from Nabiki, it's about as close as I can get." Sayuri stated. "It was a real soap opera, everyone was interested in what was going on."  
  
"So, it's all true." Minako echoed.  
  
"Yes, but it's all true. I have seen Ranma in action and he is an amazing fighter," the Nerima girl said.  
  
"How did he get so good?" Makoto asked.  
  
"Well," Sayuri began, "it has something to do with a ten year training trip his father took him on, beginning when he was only five."  
  
"She's been training since she was five?" Makoto asked, slightly disbelieving.  
  
"Yes, and from what I know the training wasn't all good. Remember when I mentioned to you about Ranma acting like a cat and kissing Akane at school?  
  
The five Juuban girls nodded.  
  
"Well that was the result of a training... mishap. Akane said it was something called the cat-fist and it involved throwing a young child into a pit of starving cats over and over again. I didn't get all the details - I thought it was too horrible at the time."  
  
"Was her training always like that?" Ami asked a little pale.  
  
Sayuri shrugged. "From what I can gather, Ranma's father was pretty much fixated with martial arts and is not a very bright man or honorable man no matter how much he preached about honor."  
  
"How did she stay sane throughout all of this?" Rei asked, waving her hand indicating all of Nerima around them. "We've only been here a few hours and I feel like I'm beginning to go insane."  
  
"It's not too bad. I heard that Juuban has it worse with scantily dress girls running around and fighting these weird monsters all of the time," Sayuri answered back, slightly defensive.  
  
The five big sweated in silence.  
  
"What about this friend of yours, Akane?" Ami asked, breaking the silence, "Is she around, maybe we can talk to her about Ranma."  
  
"No, since Ranma left, her and Yuka have been spending a lot of time together. I thing Yuka is making sure Akane doesn't get too depressed over Ranma and do something rash," Sayuri said, "and since Nabiki's legal problems began, she also has been under a lot of stress."  
  
"Legal problems?" Ami asked, recalling the conversation at the dojo.  
  
"Yes, she pissed off the wrong girl at school that she tried to blackmail and that girl blew the whistle on Nabiki, Akane's sister. There has been a big investigation and she has been tied up with lawyers and all sorts of legal stuff," the girl replied with a slight smile on her face.  
  
The other girls at the table looked at each other, wondering if they should even ask.  
  
"Wow. Curses, an idiot for a father, a over-honored psycho for a mother, a - " Rei paused looking at their guest, "high-spirited pervert basher for a fiancé plus two other girls claiming to be his fiancé, a Chinese Amazon girl claiming to be his wife, a crazy Samurai wanting to date her girl side and kill her boy side who also has a sister that wants to do the opposite and every nut case within twenty miles that wants to fight, bash or kill him."  
  
"And to top it off," Ami picked up from Rei, "Ranma is also a world class martial artist, who spent ten years on the road with an idiot for a father who sold her over and over again for food, who also endured insane training techniques and had honor hammered into her by someone who was honorless. Why hasn't she gone crazy and killed anybody yet?"  
  
"Do you know how... incredible this all sounds?" Rei added  
  
"Yes I know how it sounds and no he hasn't killed anybody, in fact he goes out of his way to make sure no one gets hurt, even though the fights tears up a lot of real estate, but I don't think it's ever really his fault," Sayuri answered.  
  
Before the conversation could continue, the bus to the rail station arrived.  
  
"It was nice talking with you Sayuri, was it?" Ami said while standing, Sayuri nodded. "It's been real interesting," Ami finished.  
  
"Yeah, we never have anything this weird back home," Rei added. The girls said there goodbyes and boarded the bus to the rail station. The ride there gave plenty of time for the girls to discuss what they found out. Ami was starting to be troubled by this.  
  
Emotionally dependent? Yes, considering how quickly she bonded with Akane according to Sayuri. Socially isolated? Yes, taking the ten year martial arts training trip into account which was also abusive in manner. Honor? Ranma father preached all the time, her mother lived it and Ranma? According to Sayuri, she tried to be honorable. Two lives, thousands of years apart and still so much alike.  
  
Ronin. Ranma was thrown out of her family and onto the streets with nothing more than what she could carry. For someone who tried to be honorable, it must have been a devastating blow. From what they gathered, Ranma was ronin for at least a half a year. What was she doing all that time and how did it affect her? Ami sighed, even though it was educational, she felt now that this trip was probably a waste of time. This helped them to understand Ranma of six or seven months ago. Ami could only imagine how much of that was carried over to Ranma as she is now. Even though Sayuri was forthcoming with information - how relevant was that information now - today?  
  
Even with such a bizarre upbringing, Ranma seemed happy and stable, at least by outward appearances. Who knows what's going on inside Ranma's mind? Maybe they should have tried to talk to the people who know her well now instead of trying to dig so deeply into her past.  
  
After boarding the train the trip back at the shrine was filled with silence from the now tired group. Ami, Rei, Minako, Usagi and Makoto staggered back inside the Hino shrine after their excursion to Nerima. It had been quite a day...  
  
"I never seen a ward that was so... so... filled with weirdoes," Ami summed up for everyone.  
  
They all nodded in agreement, missing the irony of that statement.  
  
*********************  
  
The pseudo-cat was receiving a very good back rub, something that it had learned to love over the last few weeks, when the hyper-space uplink alerted it to a priority message. Sighing within itself, it knew it was important, but it was enjoying itself so much. Without moving from the perch it was at on a young girl's lap, it opened the channel.  
  
This was it. The final instructions.  
  
Next week, on the next Saturday, the pseudo-cat was instructed to go to the park and wait for there to be sufficient humans present to use as hostages and living shields for the equipment that the expeditionary force will bring with them. When there were enough humans available, the pseudo-cat was to alert the council who would then give the word for the expeditionary force to move out. The human hostages should give them enough time to set up and get the equipment running and stabilize the wormhole on this end. Once they secured this end of the wormhole it could be widened to allow the main force, made up of shock troops and super troopers, to cross over and establish a larger beachhead. Once that was done and more equipment was brought over, multiple, stable wormholes could be opened to allow more troopers to cross over.  
  
Then the Moon Kingdom would be on its way to being reborn.  
  
Until then, the pseudo-cat was determined to enjoy as many back rubs as it could get.  
  
_____________________  



	13. Juuban part 11

To those who don't know I revised the last chapter. No plot changes, I just made it better.  
  
Constructive criticism always welcome.  
  
I don't own any of these characters or situations. As always the spelling errors are mine, as are the grammar mistakes. I do hope I'm getting better by now and there are less of them.  
________________  
  
Juuban part 11  
  
*************  
  
It was late in the afternoon when Ranma made her way back home. Akiko was sweeping the front of the restaurant as was her habit at that time of the day. She looked up from her labor and greeted Ranma with a smile.  
  
"Hello dear, did everything work out as you hoped?'  
  
"Yes granny, I think it worked out even better than I could have hoped. I think now the school will be moving in a better direction for it."  
  
"How did you convince the Masters of your art to go along with you?"  
  
"I... um... I kinda sorta made an ultimatum."  
  
Akiko raised a eyebrow, "An ultimatum?"  
  
Ranma felt like a deer caught in the headlights. "Uh... yeah. You see what they were doing, messing with peoples minds and stuff... well it was ... just... evil. There is no other way of putting it. So I made them stop."  
  
Akiko raised her other eyebrow, "Really? I was under the impression, from what you told me, that they were a stubborn lot and would be hard to change."  
  
"Well, ah... I kinda persuaded them."  
  
Akiko closed her eyes and pinched her nose, looking as if she were in deep thought. After a moment she sighed and looked up at Ranma, "Dear, I know you think you have a good reason not saying anything, but how exactly did you persuade them?"  
  
"I sorta promised... thatI'dkillthemiftheydidn'tchangethewaytheytestedtheircanidatesandsealthe mindalteringstuffaway." pant, pant, pant  
  
Akiko blinked. After a moment she shakily asked, "What?"  
  
Ranma swallowed hard, wishing she lied instead. She always found lying to Akiko hard to do. No scratch that - impossible to do. "I'm sorry Granny," Ranma finally said while looking down. "I just couldn't figure out a way to get them to stop - and they were doing evil things messing with peoples minds and stuff."  
  
Akiko sighed again, "Ranma," she spoke softly, "were you prepared to carry out that threat?"  
  
"Yes," Ranma said in a very small voice.  
  
"Ranma," Akiko said equally softly, "I know you have the power to carry out the threat," she then set her broom down and took Ranma hands in hers, "but don't let that power rule you. Understand?"  
  
Ranma looked up from their joined hands and into those hazel eyes that always seem to pierce her soul. "Granny?"  
  
"I'm afraid if you always rely on your superior strength to get your way, then you will stop trying to reason and think through your problems. Using it in dealing with people who disagree instead of negotiating with them, you could... well, turn into the very thing you say you hate. A bully who preys on the weak."   
  
Ranma paled as she stared at those eyes, and shook her head. "No. No way I'll ever be like that. Granny, you have to believe - ."  
  
Akiko raised one of her hands, silencing Ranma. "I know you say that now, but what about ten years from now? Five years? Or maybe as little as one year from now?"  
  
Ranma lowered her head, a million different thoughts seemed to race through her mind. After a moment she raised her head and looked at Akiko, "No. No way. I used force with the Masters because that's all they respect - and I had to be ready to carry out my threat or it would have been meaningless. I won't rely on strength, I'll use other ways if the situation calls for it. I won't become... a bully, someone who preys on the weak."  
  
Akiko regarded Ranma for what seemed like a long moment. "See that you don't dear, I would be most disappointed in you if you did."  
  
"Don't worry granny," Ranma said smiling. "I have the power to stop evil, I will not follow in its footsteps," the last said firmly with determination.  
  
Akiko smiled in approval, "Very good, dear. As for anyone else that has given you grief in your past, how are you planning on dealing with them?"  
  
"I haven't really thought beyond dealing with the Masters. I really don't know," Ranma answered somewhat subdued.  
  
"I think you should give everyone the same chance." Ranma started to protest, but was halted again by Akiko's raised hand. "It would be only fair. After all, you gave the Masters another chance. It would only be right to extend that to others that have crossed your path."  
  
Ranma thought for a moment before answering.  
  
"I... I will give everyone another chance. I promise, but only one chance. I'm not going to be looking over my shoulder my entire life," Ranma said the last part resolutely.  
  
"No one's asking you to, dear. Now won't you come inside and help Michiko and I get dinner together? Your aunts and uncles with their families are coming to visit this evening."  
  
Ranma thought about that with eyes looking upward, "Oh yeah - I almost forgot with everything that has been happening today. I hope that uncle Shoji leaves the keraoki machine at home."  
  
Akiko giggled at that, "Yes dear, we can only hope. I wouldn't take any bets on it though."  
  
Ranma giggled with her, "Nope, I don't want to lose my tip money."  
  
On that note both women retreated into the restaurant.  
  
******************  
  
The next morning Ranma woke with the sound uncle Shoji voice belting out "Hikari". No, that was last night. God it was amazing how a tune, no matter who sang it can stick in your mind. Ranma thought back to last night and how mortified she was when her sister dragged her up there and made her sing a duet. Ranma was just glad that at least Michiko picked a song she knew and had heard before on the radio, "Asia No Junshin," or she would have been lost. She had to admit that it was a lot of fun once you relaxed and went with it. Also, she thought, they didn't sound too bad - not too bad at all.   
  
Of course she's not discounting her renditions of and Mosukoshi Ato Sukoshi either. Who knew keraoki could be so much fun?  
  
Ranma rolled onto her back and wiped the sleep out of her eyes. Yawning and stretching in her futon she basked in the warmth of the movement. Blinking a few times Ranma then rose from her bed and proceeded with her morning routine.  
  
******************  
  
Sunday afternoon was a marvelously unproductive for Ranma. She and her new sister, Michiko hung around with friends all day and shopped and talked, walked and talked, sat in the park and talked and then talked and talked. Ranma was use to how much girls talked and she couldn't say she was guiltless either, with the amount of confiding to Akiko she had been doing in the mornings. Just as well, Ranma was a good listener too, when she was paying attention.   
  
It was on this day where Ranma first noticed how much she really had changed since accepting her past memories.  
  
The park was reasonably crowded for a Sunday and the five girls were gathered on one long bench, talking about the coming Art Show at the school that was scheduled for next week. Ranma not really being part of that project, let her mind and eyes wander Taking in the park as a whole and concentrating on appraising the fighting potential of people walking by. she had made it a practice over the years to do this. You may never know when an seemly innocent person may be trying to hide deadly skills under a veil normalcy.  
  
[That one's definitely not a fighter, she's too out of shape...] Ranma thought as Hitomo droned on about how one of the boy's wasn't pulling his share of the work in putting the Art Show together.  
  
"... and then he had the nerve to ask for a break after hardly doing..."  
  
[That one's not to bad, had a little training - but probably not much though... ]  
  
"... and I said that "What do you mean break? You hardly done anything." and he starts trying to make like..."  
  
[Hmmm. She's not a fighter, but you can tell she works out at something. Flexible, must be something like Yoga or something similar. Nice body, good behind. Wouldn't mind meeting her...]  
  
"... I didn't know what I was talking about and tries to ignore me. So I got Kenji who was in charge of arranging the gallery and..."   
  
[Man that guy must be pathetic. It looks like he hardly knows how to walk much less fight. The girl next to him is not too bad, but still not a fighter...]  
  
"... then they get into it. I mean Ichiro was just being lazy and Kenji called him on it and then Yoshiko came up and put her two cents in and..."  
  
[Whoa! That guy over there had a lot of training. Good muscle tone, must work out a least four times a week... good shoulders, not bad, looks flexible and...]  
  
"... well, that made Ichiro angry, and when he confronted Yoshiko, he started telling everyone how he did what Ken did. Right there in front of Ken! What do you know what happened then, Ranma? ..."  
  
[... not bad looking either, I wonder what kind of personality he has? I wonder what he's like, someone like that I hope is not a jerk...]  
  
"Ranma?"  
  
[I wonder if he has a girlfriend?]  
  
"RANMA?"  
  
"Huh? What?" Ranma asked breaking from her thoughts.   
  
"I was asking you a question," Hitomo smiled with eyes gleaming. "Who were you checking out? That college boy over there?" Hitomo said while slightly jerking her head in said direction.  
  
Ranma stared wide eyed at Hitomo for a second before realizing that was exactly what she was doing. She was use to checking out girls and guys for hidden fighting potential, but checking them out as and material was something new for her. Ranma faced flushed with embarrassment before she stammered out, "No! I mean yes! It's not what it looks like!"  
  
Ranma's sister and friends giggled at the sight of a red faced, poorly lying, and caught in the act girl, who was trying so desperately to deny what was so obvious. Ranma's sister, Michiko took pity on her.  
  
"It's okay Ranma. It just means you're normal."  
  
"Yeah, I've been eyeing him myself," Chiyo said giggling lightly.  
  
"It's okay, Ranma. It just means you're not dead,"Tamami also added giggling.  
  
"Yeah, hee, hee, hee. Normal. That's it," Ranma laughed a little while scratching the back of her neck.  
  
"Does anyone feel up to some ice cream?" Hitomo asked breaking this train of events.  
  
"That sounds good to me," Tamami seconded.  
  
Everyone agreed that it was a prefect ideal. The five girls rose from the bench as one and headed out of the park towards the ice cream parlor. Ranma tagged along in the middle of the group, pondering this latest development. She remembered checking out a girl just before being distracted by the boy. What did this mean? As she understood it, she was bisexual in her past life and it would only be natural for her to steer what way again. But with a guy?! She didn't know about that. Ranma figured at that point she could ignore it for now, accept it, or see what happens. What really disturbed her about the whole thing was the fact that looking and girls and boys in "that" way didn't really seem to bother her that much. It just seemed so natural for her.  
  
For her present sanity Ranma decided to ignore it and let whatever happen, happen.   
  
Besides there was ice cream to concentrate on.  
  
****************  
  
The ice cream parlor was clean, white tiled and chrome establishment that attracted teenagers in droves in the warm afternoons of the waning days of summer. Also it was a good place to gather to gossip and discuss the going ons of who was seeing who. Hence, the crowded conditions. However, there was a group of girls that were there discussing more that what was going on in school.   
  
Ami and the rest of the girls were at a table in a relatively quite corner, missing out on their favorite booth, eating ice cream and discussing yesterdays events. Ami steeled herself, the other girls may not like what she was going to say, but she knew that they should how she felt. She leaned toward the center of the table and signed everyone to follow suit. As they huddled there Ami whispered over the din of the room.  
  
"I think going to Nerima was a mistake, I don't think well really know more about Ranma then we started."  
  
"You think so?" Makoto said dryly.  
  
Ami nodded. "There is way too much unaccounted for time between the time Ranma left Nerima and showed up here in Juuban. For all we know this may not be Ranma."  
  
"Pluto seemed sure..." Minako said.  
  
"Yeah, but if she is who Pluto was right, then why didn't she transform?" Rei interjected.  
  
"Keep your voice down. I been thinking about that. Remember reading the section on Tuxedo Mask? The part where it said that females were better able to access the planetary powers?" Ami said.  
  
"Ahh... we didn't read that part, you did mentioned it though - what about it?" Minako said.  
  
"Well, think about it. Ranma was born a boy, right?" Ami ventured into unknown territory.  
  
The other girls at the table nodded.  
  
"Well, what if you had to be a girl not just in body. Maybe in order to change you had to be a girl." The emphasis was on the word be.  
  
"What about Harua? You know how she is..." Rei said trailing off.  
  
"Yes, I know but, she is still a girl. Deep down she is one, she could never truly think like a man because she's never truly been a man. At least in this life" Ami said.  
  
"So what you're saying is that maybe the reason Ranma didn't change was because she was still thinking or... being more like a man?" Rei asked.  
  
"Maybe, I'm just guessing. I really don't have anything to go on. I have a feeling though, that Ranma is more girl than boy now." Ami paused in her theorizing for a moment before continuing. "The human mind is a flexible thing. My guess Ranma would have to adapt to her girl side eventually or go insane. A person can't go through life and not be effected by the physical changes that happen when your a girl. The hormones alone would have been tough to deal with."  
  
The other girls at the table just stared at her.  
  
"Huh?" Usagi said for everybody, speaking for the first time since the conversation began.  
  
"I'm saying Ranma probably had to adapt to being a girl, one way or another. Ranma doesn't strike me as the type of person who would just give up and die. So, she adapted and became a girl. But how did it come about? I bet Pluto knows more about this, but getting answers from her is like pulling teeth." Ami said the last part distractedly.  
  
Just then the girl in question enter the shop, surrounded by a group of her friends. Ami leaned forward and whispered, "She just came in, nobody say anything."  
  
"Why not go up and ask her where she's been?" Usagi asked in a very innocent voice.  
  
Rei rolled her eyes and said, "We can't go up to her and say, "Hello my name is Rei, where have you been for the last six months?" Do you know how that would sound?"  
  
"Like we're curious?" Usagi answered with a question.  
  
"Look, let's go somewhere where we can talk a little more freely without worrying about Ranma overhearing us." Ami said.  
  
"What about Ranma?" a voice asked.  
  
The five scouts looked around for a talking potted plant, instead all they found was one of Ranma's friends standing near the table.  
  
"I was coming over to see if you were through with the table so I could get it for my friends - what this about Ranma?" Chiyo asked again.  
  
"I... er... its... well..." Ami stuttered out.  
  
"We heard a rumor that she is a good martial artist and I was wondering if it was true." Makoto said, covering for Ami.  
  
"Why yes it's true. I don't know how good she is but you can ask her - Oh Ranma!" Chiyo call over to the red head. The girls at the table cringed, they wanted to avoid Ranma like Pluto asked them to. It was not to be.  
  
Ranma turned toward Chiyo's call and started walking over with cone in hand. Usagi picked that particular time to suddenly push her chair back so she she could turn to get a better view of the approaching girl. All she managed to do was push herself right into the oncoming Ranma. Caught off guard Ranma staggered backward a bit, cone flying high in air and with the scoops separating in midair. In a movement that was too quick too see, Ranma caught the cone between two fingers and then instantly caught the scoops with it before any got near the floor.  
  
"Did you see that? I never seen anyone move so fast," Makoto said while the others at the table gaped.  
  
"Ohmygosh,Excusemeplease.Ididn'tseeyou.Canyouforgivemeplease.Pleasedon'tbemadat meI'mreallysorry!" Usagi blurted out.  
  
"It's alright, no harm done." Ranma said polity even though she was a little annoyed. [Jezz, how many times is this girl going to run into me, and the way she talks and wears her hair she reminds... me... of... Sailor Moon?] As if a fog had been lifted her mind, things started to click together in Ranma's head.  
  
"Is it true you're good at martial arts?" Makoto asked, interrupting Ranma's thoughts.  
  
"Yes," Ranma answered distractedly, then more softly, "I'm the best." [She one one them too, but who?] Ranma thought, trying to pull a name from somewhere in her mind.  
  
"The best? That's a pretty big claim. Would you mind sparing with me sometime? You know, to see how we measure up," Makoto continued oblivious to Ranma's contemplation's.  
  
"Yeah." Ranma answered absent mindedly, "Not today though, got stuff I need to do." [Who used to like to spar with me... or was it dance... who was it?]  
  
"Okay, that would be fine with me. I have things to do today also. We can put it off until later. Say next week?" Makoto said.  
  
"Yeah... fine." Ranma said even more distracted, [Jupiter - that's who. She's Jupiter.]  
  
"You're from Nerima aren't you?" Ami said spoke suddenly and instantly regretted it. "That's what Tamami said when she introduced us a few weeks back." Trying desperately not to sound too interested.  
  
Ranma, breaking from her thoughts narrowed her eyes a bit. "Yes that's true. What about it?"  
  
"Ah... er... nothing. I just wanted to know if Nerima was as weird as I have heard. That's all." Ami tried to cover for herself some more.  
  
"It depends," Ranma answered carefully. "I don't keep up with what's going on in Nerima, there's nothing for me there anymore." [She's one too, jezz is everyone at this table a scout?]  
  
Ranma studied the still seated girls even more, trying to put faces and names together. Ranma knew somehow, that these were her... old friends. Even if the only time she had met the Senshi in this life she couldn't see there faces, something was adding it up for her. Like some sixth sense or instinctual thing she couldn't fantom. Without a doubt she knew that these were the Sailor Scouts. She studied them some more feeling a vague pang of disappointment that the two she was looking for - hoping to see - were not among them.  
  
The girls at the table were growing nervous at Ranma's now obvious scrutiny. The seated girls became more nervous when the rest of Ranma's friends joined her. Ami looking for a way out asked, "Did you want this table? We were getting ready to go when you came up."  
  
"Why thank you," Chiyo said. "We would like to sit down."  
  
The standing girls then changed positions with the sitting ones. Ranma took the seat vacated by Usagi.   
  
"It was nice meeting you," Makoto said. "We'll set a time for a spar next time we meet."  
  
"Yeah, that would be nice. Oh! Hey... I didn't get your name." Ranma inquired.  
  
"Oh. I sorry. I'm Makoto, and these are my friends Usagi, Minako, Ami, and Rei."  
  
Ranma mentally filed the names away, "I'm Ranma as you know, and this is my sister Michiko and our friends Hitomo, Chiyo, and Tamami."  
  
"Well it was nice meeting you all, bye." With that the five girls that Ranma knew were the scouts departed for parts unknown.  
  
"They seem nice," Tamami commented.  
  
"Yeah, but they seemed nervous about something. Did you catch how they were checking out Ranma?" Hitomo pointed out.  
  
"I'm sure it's nothing - after all their friend wanted to spar with our friend. It's only natural to check out the competition," Michiko added in.  
  
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Speaking of competition - who it going to judge the art show?" Tamami asked.  
  
"Well, we have several..." Hitomo picked up the conversation from the park.  
  
Ranma tuned out the conversation at this point and pondered. She knew who the scouts were, but could they be trusted? Were they as bad as Pluto, messing with other peoples lives or were they ignorant of Pluto's doings. Something in the pit of Ranma's stomach told her that these girls were about as clueless of what Pluto was doing as they were about fighting. Ranma having done a quick study, almost unconsciously gauging the fighting skills of the girls as they left. She was disappointed to find that they were not up to "snuff"... at least not yet. She had a vague feeling that they might have been, no - they were better before... in the last life. What happened? How much did they remember?  
  
***************  
  
All good things, like eating wasabi ice cream, must come to an end. Ranma and her sister, Michiko separated from the rest of their friends and headed home to help prep the restaurant for tomorrow. After that, Ranma plan to sit down and think about how she was going to handle the scouts. Strolling home, Michiko asked Ranma, " Do you think you can beat Makoto? I heard through the grape vine that she's pretty good."  
  
Ranma responded, " Oh yes. She has had come training, but she is still nowhere near my level."  
  
"Well, I hope you're right, because I want to know who to put my money on."  
  
"Oh man, you're not going to bet on a sparing match are you?" Ranma asked worriedly.  
  
"Nah, I just was wondering, I know you get early, too early, to practice in the mornings. Its just that I have never gotten up early enough to watch you. Are you really that good?" Michiko asked.  
  
"I like to think so. I have been living the art for ten years before moving here. I never... well, except once, lost in all that time. And it's 'no' not 'nah'."  
  
Michiko looked at Ranma for a moment before breaking into giggles. " I see you have been hanging around grandma a bit."  
  
Ranma nodded and giggled with her and wondered the truth of her statement of never losing. She had to admit to herself now that she had lost plenty of times, she just never stayed that way.  
  
***************  
  
The next day at school Ranma was alert for any of the scouts that may show up unexpectedly her way. The night before she had some time to think about the situation and decided she would "check them out" to see how much they knew and didn't know. Ranma wanted to know for herself if they were in league with Pluto or were just as much in the dark as she was. Ranma hoped for the latter, remembering how the girls behaved at their first meeting. Ranma knew that it could have been an act and she wanted to know for sure. Until then, Ranma concentrated on her school work.  
  
At the end of the school day, Ranma was slightly disappointed that none of the scouts tried to approach her. Seeing them leave the school grounds, Ranma resisted the urge to follow and see where they went, but she had to get to work. Following her nightly routine of work, cleanup and homework, Ranma had little time to think about the current situation.   
  
She thought about last week, what Pluto said about "We need you in a coming fight as Sailor Sun...". What fight? Ranma was ignorant as to what that meant outside the obvious. Monitoring the time stream was Pluto's job not hers. If there was something coming, something bad enough that Pluto felt justified screwing with her life, then maybe she should give her the benefit of the doubt.  
  
Ranma shook her head. [No. She can't be trusted. She has always been more extreme in achieving her goals than she should be. She messed with me in both my lives, I should just beat the tar out of her.] Ranma paused in thought and sighed, [Then again, I did give the masters another shot, and I did promise Granny to give everyone else another shot. Well... Pooh.]  
  
Ranma sighed and look at the clock, everyone should be asleep by now. It was time for her nightly training session. She would continue her self debate later, after she had practiced on toning down some more of her energy attacks. The close quarter fighting practice in the mornings that she did in the dinning room were coming into play. By combining what she had taught herself in the mornings with what she had learned in the past few nights, she could now do a "solar flare" without destroying a wide area, she managed to keep area of destruction limited to an area the size of a room if need be. Considering how she started, that was quite a feat.  
  
Tonight though, Ranma was going to work on the warp bubbles and see what she could do with them.  
  
Ranma was having fun exploring the warp bubbles or fields that surrounded her Senshi form. She found by experimentation and a little work that the effect that the bubble had on whatever it regulated, was in direct relation to the amount of power she put into it or took away. Some fields did nothing but regulate her interaction with her surrounding environment. She found she could control gravity, mass and time/space by varying the amount of power in that field. With it she could make things heavier or lighter, make time run slower or faster than normal and a weird effect on space that she was going to explore more latter on tonight.   
  
The inner most field was an armored layer, after all that's pretty much what it did. It seemed to be a combination of all the fields that surrounded her and protected her from any outside effects. This was one of the few fields she had no conscious control on and it seemed that it regulated its power needs independently without her direct control.  
  
One of the coolest things she discovered that she could split the fields into several ones of the same function and control each field independently.  
  
Ranma split the field that regulated her interaction with gravity into two, then poured power into the inner of the two fields and left the outer one alone. The dead brush that was within the middle field as well as the surrounding ground was immediately crushed by it's own weight as gravity increased a thousand fold. The inner armor field protected Ranma from its effects while the outer one protected the surrounding environment. When Ranma returned gravity to normal she was surrounded by a circle of highly compacted and fused earth.  
  
"Cool," was Ranma's only comment.  
  
Playing with her different warp fields, she found she could do the same thing with the time, but she had no desire to have compressed time go even slower than she was already. She then turned her attention the the spacial one. The spacial field seemed tied into the field that regulated time in some way she couldn't figure out. Maybe it was a way of covering distances without using her sword.   
  
Ranma decided to test that theory. Putting a little power into the spacial field she noticed how power was automatically being directed into the one that controlled time without her intervention. Ranma then focused on going 40 feet across her little corner of the outback. Nothing.  
  
Ranma pondered and went with a impression she had. She stretched her feelings and felt the fabric of space between where she was and where she wanted to be and then folded it. That's when things got weird. She felt the space/time fields fluctuate like a heartbeat and during this she had an attack of vertigo and became disoriented. The next thing she knew she was in at the spot she was aiming for. Turning to check out the if anything else was affected by her test she spotted... herself at her starting point.  
  
Ranma blink-blinked at that as her twin wavered and disappeared. Ranma cut all her fields to normal and looked about frantically. In the moonlight she didn't see anyone else in the barren landscape of the outback and her senses of space/time told her she was alone. Nothing else seemed affected by her test. With a shrug of her shoulders, Ranma repeated he experiment this time going for a longer distance.  
  
The same feeling of vertigo and disorientation overcame her as she turned quickly to her starting point. Sure enough, there she was. Ranma's twin just disappeared again, wavering out of existence.  
  
[What in the hell is this?] Ranma pondered. This was weird, even for her and she didn't really remember doing anything like this in her past life. What did it mean? Ranma sighed. More questions, just great. Ranma repeated the experiment again this time aiming for the Moon. Nothing happened.  
  
[I guess there is a limit.] Ranma thought. [I wonder how many times I can do this?]  
  
With that thought, Ranma zigzagged back and forth across the barren, flat plane until she couldn't stand anymore from the dizziness. Falling on her rump, Ranma watched multiple images of herself disappear across the landscape.   
  
[Well it might come in handy for short teleporting in a fight, but too much could be a problem,] Ranma thought as she analyzed the practical combat usage of - whatever. Ranma shook her head clear and stood up wobbly.  
  
[I think that's enough for tonight,] groan[I'll have to work on this later.]  
  
Ranma summon her sword and headed home.  
  
*************  
  
It was Wednesday before Ranma gotten a chance to pursue her desire to trace down the scouts. The dinner crowd was unusually light, which made for a faster clean up. Her and Michiko were finished with everything just before 8:00. Being early, Ranma decided to go for a walk in the before in got too dark outside. Though Akiko knew that Ranma could take care of herself, she still insisted that she be indoors at a reasonable hour on school nights. Michiko still had to finish her homework, so Ranma went on without her. Quickly changing out of her waitress uniform, she folded it neatly and dressed herself in a pair of black slacks with a red blouse - an ode to her old trademark outfit.  
  
The sidewalks were still fairly busy at this time of night. Ranma found she had to dodge around groups of people going here and there as she made her way the the wider street that was located near the restaurant. She noted the ice cream shop that she had run into the Senshi last weekend and wondered again how to approach the problem. That's when she saw them, the one with the short hair walking on the other side of the street with the twin ponytailed girl that Ranma identified as Sailor Moon. Something was clicking in Ranma's head, again on an instinctual level, [Mars? NO - Mercury!]  
  
Ranma decided to stealthily followed.  
  
****************  
  
Ami and Usagi were making their way to the Cherry Hill Shrine. Ordinarily the scouts would get together sometime during the weekend to conduct Senshi business, but Rei had ben insistent and said even the Outers were going to be there. Pluto was not only coming, she was the one who called the meeting. Something big must be up and Ami had a feeling that it involved a certain red head.  
  
Ami and Usagi made their way toward their destination as the light of the sun started to fade and the first of the streetlights began to turn on. Unknown to the girls, a figure that hugged the shadows was trailing them.  
  
****************  
  
Ranma cautiously follow the girls known to her as Mercury and Moon as they climbed the steps that lead to the shrine. Ranma was on full alert as she parrelled the pair as they neared the entrance of the house that was located beside the shrine itself. Ranma waited a few minutes before finding an out-of-the-way spot behind some bushes and transformed. She then compressed time and entered the house herself.  
  
The interior of the house sort of reminded Ranma of the Tendo's, but she quickly pushed that comparison out of her mind. No use thinking about what might have been, even though it filled her her heart with a slight pain. Betrayal like that is seldom forgotten. Ranma walked openly throughout the house until came to a closed door near the rear of the building. Opening it carefully as to not injure anyone that could be on the other side, she peek in.   
  
The room was crowded with girls. Ranma recognized five of the girls as the ones from ice cream shop, the others she didn't but still felt a instinctual recognition to anyway. She then closed the door and then went into normal time. Leaning close she pressed her ear to the door, hoping to listen in on the conversation.  
  
"What's this all about?" a voice asked.  
  
"It has to do something with that red head we meet last week, I bet," said another.  
  
"I would like to talk to her," said another still, "I wanted to ask her about that spanking comment."  
  
"Harua!" an exasperated voice cried out. "Let's not even go there."  
  
Ranma blushed silently outside the room at the memory of the moment.  
  
"Spanking?" a small voice said.  
  
"Hee, hee, we don't need to talk about that now," the other voice said.  
  
Silence.  
  
"Good everyone's here," a dominating voice spoke out.  
  
"EEEK! Don'tdothat,youscaredtheheckoutofme!Whydoyoualwaysdothat?" Ranma would know that voice anywhere.   
  
"This is important," the new voice ignored Moon's outburst, "we may have a problem. There is a possible threat of Ranma going insane."  
  
Silence.  
  
"Insane? What makes you think so?"  
  
"There is a distinct possibility of that. If she is going insane, then she will be a bigger danger than what is coming," Pluto said as Ranma finally made the connection to the speaker.  
  
"What is coming?"  
  
"We can discuss that later, right now we must deal with this possible crisis at hand."  
  
"She didn't seem to be insane when we talked to her earlier," Moon said.  
  
More silence.  
  
"You have spoken with her?" Pluto asked.  
  
"Yes, last Sunday at the ice cream shop. She seem fine to me at the time," a new voice ventured out.  
  
"I haven't been able to observe her in about a week and a half. I have been monitoring other things and there are signs that she has been tapping into her powers. Perhaps on a subconscious level. If so, then she could be dangerous."  
  
"By the way, why didn't she transform?"  
  
"I... I don't know." Pluto admitted.  
  
More silence.  
  
"How dangerous could she possibly be?" Ranma heard the sound of the voice and finally connected it to Mercury.  
  
"If she is going insane and taps into just part of her powers she could easily incinerate the Solar System," Pluto answered straightforward.  
  
"No way."  
  
"Yes, she could."  
  
"No, I mean you answering questions with straight answers. No way."  
  
A heavy sigh was heard.  
  
"We must find out what the mental state of Ranma is. If she is showing any signs of becoming unstable, then we must deal with her," Pluto continued.  
  
"Deal with her? How do you think we should deal with her?" a voice asked cautiously.  
  
"We would have to kill her. Before she taps into anymore of her powers," Pluto said with finality.  
  
"Wait, wait, wait. How do we know that's she going insane? You yourself have admitted to not being able to observe her for over a week. What makes you think she going nuts?"  
  
Silence.  
  
"I not sure if she is going insane. That's why we must have to find out. And quickly."  
  
"How do you suggest we do that?"  
  
"Who is Ranma anyway?" another voice interrupted, "We went all the way to Nerima to find out about her. And if that ward is any indication of her mental state, then she was probably already insane long before she got here."  
  
"Ranma is the reincarnated Sailor Sun, the last and most powerful Senshi created. Her whole existence and training was designed so that she could wield those powers as effectively as possible." Pluto answered, "She was, unfortunately born a male in this life... we needed for her to be a female."  
  
"So that's where the Cursed Springs came in..."  
  
"Yes, we are fortunate that such a place exists."  
  
"If she does go nuts, surely all of us can deal with-" the voice was cut off by Pluto.  
  
"No, you don't understand. Sailor Sun is from the most advanced Senshi created. So advanced that she is the only one from that series. She's extremely powerful. All of us combined wouldn't stand a chance against her."  
  
"Series? What are you talking about?"  
  
"Project series numbers, right? The voice of Mercury rang out. tap, tap, tap "That would explain what these numbers that are before our project names are."  
  
"I know you found the files, but there is more than what's in them to tell," Pluto carefully said.  
  
Ranma still outside the room, pressed her ear closer to the door and listened carefully.  
  
"What makes her so special?"  
  
"All of us have potential weaknesses that can be exploited. Sun was designed from the ground up to not to have any. Everything from her upbringing, training, conditioning and infusing of the power was aimed solely at eliminating any potential weaknesses. So concerned about exploitable weaknesses they made it possible for her to tap her powers on a limited basis while untransformed. The Techo-mages didn't even build in a fail-safe for her," Pluto had since taken on a "lecturer's voice" by now.  
  
How did they know she wouldn't turn on the Moon Kingdom? The voice of Mercury asked.  
  
She had been selected for her almost inbred sense of honor, duty and loyalty. This was further enhanced by her upbringing, Pluto answered.  
  
I can't believe that Serenity would allow anyone to be raised that way. We read the reports, what they did was cruel, Moon spoke with an almost accusatory voice.  
  
I know, at the time it seemed the right thing. Serenity was pressured by her court advisors who feared Sailor Sun's power. She regretted deeply and always carried her guilt with her.  
  
Silence. Outside the door, Ranma felt relief in the somewhat confirmation of her belief of Serenity's sincerity.  
  
"How powerful is she?'  
  
"Without transforming and under the right circumstances she can tap into power that could very well lay waste the entire Solar System."  
  
"And transformed?"  
  
A sigh was heard, "No one really knows, they were afraid to test her that high. Theoretically she could destroy a good quarter of the galaxy. Many of the Techo-mages felt her power was even greater," Pluto admitted.  
  
More silence.  
  
"Anything else?"  
  
"Yes, there are other things, but it would take to long to tell."  
  
"One question. Why wasn't she used in the war with the Negaverse."  
  
Pluto sighed heavily again. Because of Sailor Sun's power. They made her too powerful to use.  
  
Mercury said.  
  
Pluto continued, She was a super weapon, an ultimate weapon of mass destruction. So powerful is Sailor Sun that using her in such close quarters, like a planet or a moon, would have just been just as dangerous as the invaders. Because of that their were no plans draw up on how to use her tactically in a intersystem conflict. The court advisors thought that her presents alone would deter any would-be invader.  
  
That's crazy! [Mars, that's her name.] Ranma thought outside the door, You have a weapon, you use it. That's all.  
  
I think I see what Pluto's getting at, Mercury said. It would be like... having an atomic bomb where all you need is a stick of dynamite. There was another pause before Mercury continued, And having a weapon that could basically wipe out the Solar System, you would want to be damn careful how you used it.  
  
Pluto, why waken her now if she too powerful to use?Mars asked.  
  
Because in the end we may need her power to finish the coming conflict... once and for all.  
  
  
  
By destroying a universe.  
  
More silence.  
  
"What do we do now?"  
  
"We have to find out about Ranma's mental state. This means all of you will need to observe her and report back to me. I cannot monitor her from the Gates of Time anymore."  
  
[Great], Ranma fumed outside the door, [It's bad enough that Pluto screwed with my life, but now she's going to get everyone to spy on me.]   
  
Ranma considered her options. She could reveal herself to the Senshi and see what happens. She could go on like she has been, adding some odd behavior to freak them out a little - stringing them along for grins. Or she could ignore it and keep on living her life as she has been doing. Ranma thought about the last choice. No she would not do that, especially if there is something bad and nasty coming as Pluto had hinted at. The second choice was out, it would be fun though. Send them into a panic. Kind of a small and petty token of revenge against Pluto. In the end though, they might decide to come gunning for her and that definitely would not be fun.  
  
So it was the first choice, but that didn't mean she couldn't have a little fun with it.  
  
Ranma compressed time and moved into the room, carefully squeezing between the open door and one of the scouts with turquoise hair that stood near the entry. Ranma froze and looked at the girl carefully as feelings of excitement, like electricity moving up and down her spine started to flow through her. Shaking her head to clear it of anymore naughty thoughts, she carefully maneuvered around the frozen bodies of the rest of the girls. Crouching low behind Pluto, Ranma went into normal time.  
  
"What's this about my mental state?" Ranma boomed loudly.  
  
"EEEEEP!" Pluto screamed as she leaped across the room. She spun in mid air to face Ranma's direction. It would have been a graceful move if she had watched where she was going. As it was she tripped over the corner of the bed and collided with some of the other girls that were standing near there . Landing atop of them in a heap with Pluto's Garnet staff laying beside the pile of arms and legs.  
  
"BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"  
  
Ranma and the rest of the girls that were still standing, along with some from the pile, turned their eyes upon Usagi. She was laughing so hard that she was holding her sides and leaning up against Rei for support.  
  
"I always wanted to see what she would do if she were surprised like that!" Usagi choked out and renewed her laughter. "BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!"  
  
While Usagi's laughter died down, the girls untangled themselves from the pile they found themselves in. All of the attention then turned to the newest addition to their little group. Ranma stood there as Sailor Sun, arms behind her back, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, whistling lowly and sweetly, looking as innocent as anyone can be.  
  
"Don't do that!" Pluto yelled while reaching over and retrieving her staff.  
  
"Who? Me?" Ranma answered back, while looking even more innocent.  
  
Pluto huffed and stood, assisted by her staff to pull herself up. Ranma, with her arms still behind her back, twisted her body to and fro swirling her short skirt. This made it bellow up slightly exposing the bare flesh between the tops of her thigh-high white stockings and the bottom of her teal skirt. This caused two other members of the room to be very distracted.  
  
"Well it seems you turned out alright," Pluto finally said.  
  
"Yeah, no thanks to you and Happosai." Ranma snorted rather coldly, then angrily, "I came real close to ending everything.  
  
"Happosai?" Pluto asked , ignoring the statement.  
  
[She doesn't know about Happosai,] Ranma thought. "Just a perv that I already dealt with." Ranma answered while cocking her head slightly. "So... now what?"  
  
Silence.  
  
"I want to know about the spanking," a girl who looked all of twelve or thirteen spoke out.  
  
"Hotaru, now is not the time," said a girl dressed in slacks and a shirt with short cropped blond hair.  
  
Ranma upon realizing how young the person was stammered, "Yeah... that's it... not the time or place. Hee, hee, hee." Turning her attention to the one who spoke last. Uranus was the name that something in her brain supplied for her. "Not as sharply dressed as I remember, but still sharp none the less."  
  
"We met?"  
  
"Along time ago." Ranma paused and smiled in a certain way, "Let's just say - that you and Neptune know how to treat a lady."  
  
Uranus and Neptune felt their faces heat.  
  
The rest of the girls blink-blinked as one and watched as the conversation turned in an unexpected and interesting direction. That is, until Pluto spoke up, "I know you girls would love to get reacquainted, but we have a crisis coming."  
  
Ranma sighed for the missed opportunity. She pinched the bridge of her nose as she thought for a moment before speaking. "Okay, what's up. And none of your usual vague hints and 'mysterious shit' you like to do. Give us the straight dope or I'm out of here."  
  
The girls in the room were slightly taken aback by Ranma's attitude, but then again, they often felt like saying that to Pluto in their past dealings. No one said a thing as they watched the interaction between the two scouts.  
  
Pluto regarded Ranma. "You don't think -"  
  
"I know," Ranma said coldly as anger slowly built up within her again. "I know what you did to me in this life and what you did to me in my past one."  
  
Pluto stared at Ranma, unmoving. Though it looked as if she did pale a little.  
  
"The only reason I not tearing your head off is that I just gave a bunch of a**holes a second chance and I made a promise to extend the same courtesy to others," Ranma said.  
  
Pluto exhaled explosively. Then she spoke just as cooly and with as much anger as Ranma did, "Listen, what I di -"  
  
Only to be cut off again by Ranma's hand around her throat. No one even seen her move, she was just suddenly there. The shock of Ranma's sudden attack made Pluto drop her staff. "No! You listen," Ranma said through clenched teeth. "I've had it with you screwing with my life. Don't. Screw. With. Me. Again. Understand?" As Ranma said this, power leaked into her eyes turning them into twin blue suns.   
  
The rest of the scouts backed away from the obviously annoyed and very powerful girl. Even thought she was much taller than Ranma, Pluto was hanging there from Ranma's outstretched arm. Pluto was starting to turn a little blue from the lack of air.   
  
[It would be so easy to kill her,] Ranma thought. [Just close my hand and pay her back for all she did to me - in both my lives.]  
  
Ranma's hand tighten slightly, Pluto gasped and grappled at the hand that was menacing her. While Ranma was busy, Ami thought about reaching for her transformation pen, but put that thought aside. If Sun was as powerful as all the evidence she had seen suggested, it wouldn't do any good to antagonize her any further.  
  
Ranma looked at Pluto's bluing face and loosen her grip. [No! I can't do that. I have to keep my promises and I promised Akiko I would give everyone another chance. That goes for this bitch.]  
  
Ranma released her grip. Pluto fell to her knees and began gulping air into her lungs. Ranma stood over her, thinking about how close she came to breaking her promise. It was a near thing too. The close call bothered her.  
  
Ami who, along with everyone else in the room was watching from the side, breathed a sigh of relief. She more than a little frightened by what she had seen, and felt that trying to confront Sailor Sun wouldn't be a good ideal. She decided a distraction would work the best to try and calm Ranma down.  
  
"So, what what are we up against?"  
  
Pluto, whose face finally returned to it's normal color, looked up at Ranma before regaining her feet and addressing Ami and the rest of the girls in the room. "The First Enemy is coming," she stated rather horsily.  
  
"The First... you mean the Protectors?" Ami asked.  
  
Pluto hesitated in mild surprise before recovering, "Yes, and they're more cleverer than before."  
  
"It's your job to monitor the time stream for events like this. How come you didn't notice this coming?" Ranma demanded, hands on hips.  
  
Pluto didn't care for Ranma's tone, but was in no position to object so she let it slide. "I'm not sure how they pulled it off, but the First Enemy somehow manage to plant a temporal loop over one of the branches of the time stream thereby hiding their activities."  
  
"Temporal loop?" Ranma asked, then shook her head, "Then how did you discover them?"  
  
"I noticed a wrinkle in time that was stationary relative to the rest of the time stream. On closer examination I discovered that was the point where the temporal loop was inserted over the actual branch of the time stream."  
  
"Hmmm," Ami thought aloud. "The effect would be like what you see in those old spy movies. Where someone takes a picture of a room from the angle of the security camera and then places that picture in front of the camera hiding what's really going on in the room."  
  
"Exactly" Pluto affirmed.  
  
"Great, now who are the First Enemy and why are they so dangerous. Dangerous enough for you to feel the need to ruin my life?" Ranma asked, fighting the urge to dished out some of what she felt was well deserved pay back. The memory of talking with Akiko and the promise she gave stayed her.  
  
"The First Enemy or the Protectors as they were originally called, are bio-weapons developed in the early part of the Moon Kingdoms history..." Pluto went on to tell the tale about how the Protectors where conceived, programed, tested (in a controlled environment) and then commissioned with near disastrous results. ... from what I figure the Protectors will most likely consider most of the human race a threat to the preprogramed perimeters of the Moon Kingdom and will set out to eliminate any deviators."  
  
"How much of the human race?" Minako asked.  
  
Pluto sighed, "About ninety-seven percent."  
  
"Ninety ..." Minako started.  
  
"... Seven ..." Harua continued.  
  
"... Percent?" Ami finished.  
  
"Just lovely," Ranma said. "So just how strong are these guys?"  
  
Pluto was disturbed by Ranma's behavior and kept eyeing her. Ranma was not acting as Pluto expected her to. After coming into her powers, Pluto thought that Ranma would be more... docile and eager to please like she was before, so long ago. Ranma was clearly not insane, but maybe just as dangerous. At least to Pluto.  
  
"Pretty strong," Pluto answered. "The scouts have been tangling with them for the past few weeks now. You even took one out at the park where we first met."  
  
"Those guys were the enemy you were so worried about? We could handle them with no problem. Heck, even Usagi could probably handle one by herself," Rei shot off.  
  
"Hey, What's that suppos -" Uasgi began before being cut off by Pluto retort.  
  
"One yes, but how about hundreds - maybe thousands? The Protectors had centuries to plan this. What you have been fighting were obviously probes, designed to feel you out. Nothing more."  
  
"How many are we dealing with?" Ami asked.  
  
"Unknown."  
  
The room went silent.  
  
"How did they know about you monitoring the time streams? They were banished long before you were... created?" Ami inquired of Pluto.  
  
"I... am not sure," Pluto answered quietly. "There are so many unknown factors to account for that I don't think I'll ever know for sure."  
  
"Great," Ranma snorted. "Well if that's it, I'll be seeing you guys later."  
  
"Wait! Where are you going?" Michiru asked.  
  
Ranma looked at the turquoise haired scout and locked eyes with her. Ranma hesitated before answering. "I gotta get home, granny will be worrying about me. Maybe we can get together sometime with Uranus and... talk about old times."   
  
For some reason this simple statement made both Harua and Michiru's cheeks flush while little Hotaru looked between the three girls with confusion. Before anyone can ask anything more of her, Ranma was gone.  
  
"What do we do now?" Minako asked.  
  
"We wait," Pluto answered, before she too disappeared.  
  
*************  
  
It was Friday, near the end of the shift when a young woman in her early twenties came into the almost deserted dinning room. Ranma recognized her by sight, but not by name as one of the girls who worked waitressing during lunch hour. She looked around for moment before zeroing in on Akiko who was just coming out from the kitchen after checking on Yoshi and Michiko. The young women began talking to Akiko with pleading eyes, Akiko appeared to be listening deeply.  
  
Curious as to what what could be the matter, Ranma approached the pair to see if she could be of any help.  
  
"... you know I hate to ask this Mrs. Yonai, but I'm sure he is going to pop the question." Ranma overheard the now excited girl say.  
  
"Well, then of course you can have tomorrow off, Fumiki. I'm sure Hitomi, my son and I can get by one day without you. It's about time your boyfriend did something, you two have been going together for over two years now."  
  
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I won't forget this," the girl left. Practically dancing out the door.  
  
"Granny?" Ranma ventured. "If you need help this Saturday, I would be more than happy to do it."  
  
"Are you sure?" Akiko asked. "Don't you and Michiko have the art show going at the school this weekend?"  
  
"That's okay," came Ranma's reply. "I don't have to be there till late in the afternoon around 5 o'clock to help clean up," Ranma said, having earlier gotten suckered into helping out with the Art show. Darn those puppy dog eyes of persuasion!  
  
"Then that would be fine," Akiko smiled.  
  
As Ranma walked away, a couple seated in her section signaled for more tea. As Ranma retrieved the hot tea kettle from the waitress station to refill their cups, a stray thought struck her. Would she find someone for herself? And would that someone be a man or a woman? Too bad she couldn't have both. Back in Nerima she thought she knew what love was, but had to admit to herself she really didn't have a clue. Since coming here, Ranma knew that love was something that should make you feel wonderful and not be expressed by giving and receiving pain. Unless you're a sicko. She then thought of Uranus and Neptune, but that was different, it was - in fun. She also felt that there was more to love than just the physical act, that there had to be something more - and what that was not really clear to Ranma though.  
  
With a mental sigh Ranma carefully poured the hot tea into waiting cups.  
  
*****************  
  
Saturday morning was beautiful. The sun was peeking through between the buildings in the shopping district as a cool fall breeze filtered gently through the streets as it lifted stray leaves and papers and made them dance around the sidewalks. Ranma saw Michiko off, handing her lunch box to her and giving a gentle push in the right direction of the school. Michiko was never a morning person and it became obvious as she staggered and slept walked down the sidewalk. As she disappeared in the right direction, Ranma turned and reentered the dining room and prepared her morning workout. Ranma didn't have the dislike for school she once had and found it could be fun, but she couldn't understand volunteering to go to school some more - and on an off Saturday to boot.   
  
Ranma was working up a sweat and thinking about last Wednesday night. She had no ill feelings toward any of the scouts with the exception of Pluto. She was sorta disappointed that she couldn't get a line on Uranus and Neptune, but school and work kept her too occupied to pursue that. Can't have everything. Ranma had no doubts if things got nasty as Pluto feared, she would be there to help in anyway she could. It seemed to be just part of her nature.  
  
Pluto. Just thinking of her name made Ranma angry. Ranma also thought about how close she came to breaking her promise Wednesday night. That bothered her. Ranma felt it was important to keep the promises you make and she would go to great lengths and try to do so. She even kept Ryoga's secret after he started using that promise against her. No one else would've. Ranma figure that either made her better or stupider than most everyone else from her past. She hope it was better.  
  
Ranma thought to herself she should try to show more restraint in the future when dealing with people from her past. No matter how badly someone needed their ass kicked.  
  
**************  
  
Ranma unlocked the front door and went to the waitress station in the rear of the dining room. She was making small talk with the other waitress Hitomi, mostly about school. Hitomi was a friendly and soft spoken woman in her early twenties. Her soft spokenness, however hid a will of iron. She was just slightly taller than Ranma, had amber eyes and wore her jet black hair in a pageboy haircut that made her look younger than she really was. Unlike Ranma, she wore the blouse of her waitress uniform to show more cleavage than Ranma would feel comfortable wearing. Hitomi was in her second year in University taking mostly afternoon and evening courses, majoring in business. Ranma also discovered that she was putting herself through school and between grants, loans, scholarships and working two jobs she had somehow managed to make ends meet.  
  
"Your parents must be proud of you," Ranma said.  
  
Hitomi answered carefully, "Don't know. I haven't really talked to them much in about two years."  
  
Ranma looked at her, but didn't ask.  
  
Hitomi knew Ranma was probably dying of curiosity and answered the often unasked question. "My father felt that a higher education would be wasted on a girl. After all "women don't do anything with it once they get married," the last said in an obvious imitation of a nasally speech that Hitomi had heard many times before.  
  
"Forgive me for saying so, but your father sounds almost as much of a jerk than my ex-father."  
  
"Ex-father?"  
  
"Ahh... yeah. To make a long story short, he wanted me to marry his old training partner. The man was old enough to literally be my father. I said no, so he disowned me."  
  
"How old are you?"  
  
"Sixteen."  
  
"He wanted you to marry someone who was that old? What did your mother think?"  
  
"Don't know. I really never knew my mother. All I do know is she let my ex-father, take me away from her and home to train in martial arts when I was about five. I haven't really seen her since. Nor do I care to."  
  
An awkward silence fell over the pair.   
  
"Well, what about now?" Hitomi asked.  
  
"Now..." Ranma paused in thought, "now I have a family who really cares for me and a life I can call my own. It's way better than my old one could ever hoped to have been. I have no regrets."  
  
"Sometimes I wonder how my life would have been like if I had gotten a little more support from my parents."  
  
"It would have probably made life easier, but in the end you wouldn't be near as strong as you are now."  
  
"Strong?"  
  
"Yes. You are defined by what you have done. You're doing what it takes to reach your goal without compromising yourself or your personal honor." Ranma's voice then trailed off, "Not many people I knew from my past can say the same thing."  
  
"Oh," Hitomi replied as she thought about what Ranma had said.  
  
Anymore of the conversation was put aside as the first customers started to dribble in.  
  
*******************  
  
Most of the trees in the park were just starting to change colors, a few were already well on their way in exchanging their green leaves for the bright reds and golden yellows of fall. It was mid day and the air had only warmed up slightly from the morning. The breeze gently ruffled the limbs of the trees as they reached skyward. The same breeze also created the small ripples that traveled the lake as couples walked the path around its parameter as children darted here and there.  
  
Up in one of the brightly colored trees was a gray cat.  
  
The pseudo-cat sat on its perch where it had a commanding view of the park. It had its hyper-space unlink activated and was monitoring the number of people in the vicinity of where wormhole was projected to appear. Soon, very soon it would pass the word to the council and the battle to resurrect the Moon Kingdom would begin.  
  
Just a few more people was all it was waiting for.  
  
***************  
  
Fumiki, and her boyfriend Aki, were meandering through the park. She was walking with her right arm entwined with the left arm of the much taller Aki, who looked nervous. He kept fumbling with something buried in his pocket with his free hand. Fumiki was waiting with anticipation and hope on the inside, but was trying to stay calm and collected on the outside. She kept looking at Aki from the corner of her eye, wondering if and when he'll make his move.  
  
The couple walked together looking and commenting on the few trees that had changed so far in the park. The air was still cool and Fumiki felt Aki shiver and was sure it wasn't from the cold. He must be as nervous as me, she thought and continued to walk beside him with arms locked. Dodging children that were playing a game of tag and were darting into and out of their path, Aki was leading Fumiki into a more secluded part of the park, but not far from the crowded path that looped the lake.  
  
"Fumiki?" Aki asked suddenly.  
  
"Yes?" Fumiki answered, heart beating faster.  
  
"We've known each other a long time, haven't we?" he said while taking Fumiki's hands in his own sweating ones.  
  
"Yes," she replied as her heart raced some more.  
  
"Well... would you... er, will you marry me?" he at last worked out as he freed one hand and withdrew a small ring box from his pocket.  
  
"Yes!" was her loud reply as she threw her arms around him and hugged him for all it's worth. Even though they were in a relatively secluded part of the park, they knew better and kept displays of affections to a minimum.  
  
***************  
  
It was time. The pseudo-cat signed the council.  
  
**************  
  
Breaking from their hug, Fumiki backed away a bit as Aki removed the ring from its box and placed it on her finger. She looked at it and back at Aki, "It's beautiful," she said.  
  
"Not as beautiful as you," he answered with a smile.  
  
Their eyes meet and...  
  
Before anything more could happen between them, both were startled by a bright flash and a loud sound as if cloth were being torn. They looked over in the direction of the sound and spotted hanging in mid air a vortex of some sort that wobbled in and out of existence before stabilizing. Hanging there slightly spinning with an atmosphere of power emitting from it. The vortex then settled closer to the ground.  
  
"What is it?" Fumiki asked, slightly frightened.  
  
"I haven't the faintest ideal," Aki answered nervously. He backed away from the disturbance, taking Fumiki with him.  
  
"You think it might be dangerous?" She worriedly asked.  
  
"Let's not take any chances. We'll report this first and then..." Whatever else he was going to say was lost in a loud shrieking sound exploded from the vortex. The sound had the desired effect of stunning everyone nearby, making them freeze in the shock of having their ears assaulted.  
  
Then fleshy things started pouring out of the vortex.  
  
_______________________  
  



	14. Juuban part 12

PLEASE NOTE: for some reason Fanfiction has been dropping my usual section breaks. I've tried several different ways of uploading this chapter and in all occurrences it kept dropping the underlines at the beginning and end and the asterisks between the sections.   
  
So for this chapter I am using for section breaks. I hope they fix this soon.  
  
Also when I first perviewed this chapter, the entire last half was in bold. I didn't use bold in the entire story. Whatever they did, I hope they down grade it soon.  
  
Well, a brand new chapter. I hope you like it.  
  
I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine for pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.  
  
Constructive criticism always welcome.  
  
At the insistence of my wife and a few others, thoughts are going to be in _italics _instead of [brackets] from here on out. (She really griped at me - okay?)  
  
I don't own any of these characters or situations. As always the spelling errors are mine, as are the grammar mistakes - as it should be.  
  
.................................  
  
Juuban part 12  
  
.................................  
_  
_Fumiki and Aki were sitting side by side on the grass, both still bewildered about what had just occurred. Fumiki hadn't had the time to collect her senses after having her ears hurt like that until she was hauled off, then herded in, with a large group of people. The group seemed to be made up of about four to five hundred people of all ages, from old grandparent types to babies in the arms of their mothers. Fumiki found herself in a ring of humanity around the vortex and felt relief that Aki had somehow ended up next to her.   
  
Studying more of what was going on around her, Fumiki's her eyes drawn to the vortex. She studied the pale blue oval shaped hole that seemed to be suspended in mid air, hovering about two feet from the ground. The opening seem to fluctuate from about ten by six feet to twenty by ten feet. Parts of it seem to waver in and out of existence, almost becoming cloud-like in some places. A feeling of power that left her with the sensation of ants crawling on her radiated uncomfortably from the thing.  
  
Fumiki looked away from the vortex to discovered that she, along with everyone else were being guarded by - things. Most of the things were roughly human size and shape, which meant that they had arms and legs.   
  
Looking closer, Fumiki noted that their bodies were rounded in a sort of heart shape, the long legs had an extra joint between the knee and the ankle. The arms were about as they would be on a human, but the hands that each sported three very long fingers with an equally matching long thumb. There was no head that Fumiki could see, the flesh where one would be sort of hanging firmly between the high shoulders. She also couldn't find anything like eyes, ears or mouth. They all seemed to be made of flesh colored clay and looked more like moving statues. Everyone of the things were identical to each other, with the only thing distinguishing between one group from the next were size. Many where about the size of a man while others were larger by about a third. She wouldn't have taken it too seriously except for an atmosphere of menace that seemed to ooze from the things' very existence.   
  
As she was studying their captors, all the large ones and many of the smaller ones started moving away from the vortex fanning out into the park, leaving some of the smaller ones as guards.  
  
Fumiki continued sitting as she looked around, all the while wondering what in the hell was going on. There was no doubt that she and everyone else were being held hostage, but why? Fumiki was distracted from her thoughts by a hissing sound that came from the vortex that was to her right. Looking over, she saw the vortex grow a bright blue and more of the things came through in pairs, each pair carrying something in between them. Looking closer, Fumiki saw what the new arrivals were carrying looked strangely like very large wads of already chewed gum. The just arrived things dropped them by the opening of the vortex and moved off allowing other things to take the wads. These things then proceeded to "stick" the wads around the perimeter of the vortex starting from the bottom. Fumiki didn't know what they were doing, but whatever it was took time. The things doing the sticking appeared to have to stop often to make some kind of adjustments.  
  
Fumiki was scared, but took some comfort in the fact she wasn't alone. Looking over at Aki, she saw that he tried to give a reassuring smile. It was forced, but he was trying to comfort her the best he could.  
  
.................................  
  
Ranma's head suddenly jerked involuntarily causing her long red ponytail to fly around and swish' about her face. It was a feeling she had never felt before, but somehow it was vaguely familiar. The closest she could come to describing the sensation was of an overpowering pulling in her mind that was forcing her into a certain direction. Ranma knew somehow on an instinctive level that someone or something had forced a juncture between this universe and another. It was strong enough before fading that she could almost feel the foreign, but not too foreign, space intruding into this one. The feeling was now very vague, but Ranma felt she should go and check it out anyway. Unfortunately...  
  
"Is there something wrong Miss?" the seated portly man asked eyeing her from over his menu.  
  
Snapping her attention back into the here and now Ranma answered, "No, no sir. I'm sorry, I just thought I heard someone call my name. That's all."  
  
The excuse seemed to satisfy the customer who then proceeded to order the number three with squid with a side of fries. Ranma dutifully took the order down and bow respectfully before excusing herself.  
  
Crossing the dining room, Ranma glanced at the clock hanging on the wall, _"I won't get off for at least an hour and a half," _she thought. Looking around the busy dinning room as she crossed to turn in the just taken order, _"I'll talk to granny and see what she thinks. If she thinks it's something too, I can duck out for a minute, transform, compress time and check out what's going on."   
  
_Ranma made plans on doing that as she posted the order at the window between the dining room and the kitchen. While plotting her planned reconnaissance, Ranma tried to feel the space around her with those instinctual senses that alerted her to the oddity in the first place, hoping to mine more information.  
  
Ranma sighed, and concentrated.  
  
Her senses seemed to work no matter if she was transformed or not, but they never bothered her before when she was in her untransformed state until now. With these senses she attempted to attuned to the fabric of space/time to try to detect and trace the distortion that caught her inner senses attention. The sensations were dull and hard to figure. She teased what she could out of these now indistinct feelings.  
  
_Whatever it is, it's coming from the direction of the park - I think,_ she thought just as the little bell chimed from the divider window letting Ranma know of a finished order that was ready to serve.  
  
Carrying the completed order over to her customer, she placed it before him and bowed politely before asking if there was anything else he needed. Upon receiving a negative response, Ranma bowed again before returning to her station. Hitomi was already there retrieving a kettle of tea for three men seated in her area.   
  
"How's it going, Ranma?" she asked with a smile.  
  
"Okay I guess. It's busier than I expected," Ranma replied, looking for a chance to take a break.  
  
"Yeah, you ain't seen nothing yet. On beautiful days like this we get a later rush. As a matter of fact it should be picking up any... time... now," Hitomi said while a crowd of people walk through the front door. "Time to really get to work," she said before carrying the kettle over to her table. In the distance the wail of a siren could be heard.  
  
Ranma walked over to the front and greeted the newly arrived customers, "Welcome to Yoshi Cafe' American. Are all of you together?" A tall man at the front of the crowd wearing a very loud shirt nodded, Ranma then looked around the dining room and spotted an area open enough to accommodate the group. It was in her section of the room.   
  
Lovely - so much for talking to Akiko and getting her opinion.  
  
"Please, this way," Ranma said with a smile, while leading the line of people around other diners and to their chairs. After they were seated Ranma handed out the menus and took the their order for drinks.  
  
Ranma returned to the waitress station and began filling glasses from various dispensers, then placing each glass onto the tray beside her on the counter. On her fifth glass another sensation hit her, making her drop the glass in her hand just before hit the dispenser plunger. This sensation was different from the first and on a level she had yet to explore.  
  
_That was some kind of energy discharge, but what? _Ranma thought to herself, as she picked the unbroken glass off the counter where it fell and placed it into of bin of dirty dishes. _Wait, how did I know it was a energy discharge? _she pondered while finishing the drink orders and carrying them over to her waiting customers.  
  
As Ranma proceeded to set the drinks onto the table, she realized that there were still a lot of memories that were closed to her, _Darn, I wish I could remember more.  
  
_.................................  
  
The police car pulled up to the entrance of the park and with brakes that squeaked loudly, came to a grinding halt by the front gates. The driver then shut the motor off. The car continued to run in a sputtering and chugging way before coming to a shaky stop. The driver shook his head sadly and pushed open the creaking door.  
  
"Monsters invading," Officer Kakinomoto snorted. "I never heard such nonsense."  
  
"Maybe we'll luck out and some of the 'Senshi in the Short Skirts' will show up," Kakinomoto's partner, Mushashibo said with a smile and a touch of humor.  
  
"Well that would be nice. Let's see what's going on," Kakinomoto said as he placed his uniform cap on his head before exiting the vehicle. "Don't forget to call in before leaving the car."  
  
"Already ahead of you," Mushashibo said already standing outside with his door open, holding up the business end of the microphone.  
  
Officer Kakinomoto approached the gates of the park before freezing at the sight of several inhuman things that were coming from inside the park heading for the gates as well.  
  
_"What in the hell is this?"_ Kakinomoto thought as about fifteen man-size and at least six much larger things started nearing the gates. Kakinomoto backed away from the entrance before turning and running back to the patrol car.  
  
Mushashibo had just finished his call in before having the microphone torn from his grasp. Turning to see what in the hell was going on Mushashibo was greeted by an ashen faced Kakinomoto.  
  
"This is car 54, we have a situation at Juuban Park. We need back up, we need back up," Kakinomoto then looked back at the gates to the park, looking for signs of the things. "We need the Army, Air-Force, anything - just get some help down here."  
_  
_.................................  
  
Fumiki watched in fascination as the semi-human looking things kept up a steady pace of applying the chewed gum looking stuff around the edges of the vortex. With each piece and adjustment the things made the vortex's color seem to turn bluer and the the whole thing appeared more solid. Along with color and density change, Fumiki couldn't help but notice that it was growing larger. What had started as a fluctuating ten by six foot across hole in the air had grown to a steady thirty-five by fifteen foot tunnel.  
  
Fumiki still wondered what was going on. She was not the only one, for people were quietly discussing what this all could mean among themselves. Looking over at Aki she noticed that he was slowly moving closer to her by scooting on his rear.  
  
Suddenly a loud bang was heard, loud enough that it reverberated though the park. Murmurs were heard here and there, no doubt theorizing what it could mean. Somewhere in the crowd of seated people, children began crying.  
  
"We're all gonna die," the elderly woman seated on the other side of Fumiki said under her breath.  
  
Fumiki looked at Aki and back at the woman, "You don't mean that. I mean, we don't really know what's going on."  
  
"I've lived long enough child to know when I am in trouble. Believe me, we're in trouble," the women whispered to Fumiki. The look in her eyes left no doubt that she truly felt that way.  
  
"Why?" Fumiki asked, trying to stay calm. Even Aki's hand holding hers was of little comfort. "What makes you so sure?"  
  
"Take a good look around you, girlie. You don't think these things are here for a picnic do you?" The old woman then ran her fingers through her thinning graying hair, "These things want something, that much is clear. We are just here to be sure they get it."  
  
"Don't be trying to scare anyone now. The last thing we need is a panic," a voice from behind Fumiki and the old woman warned.  
  
They were quiet for awhile, then Aki said, "Look over there by where the front park gates are."  
  
Fumiki, the old woman and probably more who overheard Aki's comment turned toward the indicated direction and spotted a column of smoke raising up in the air. Murmurs and whispering in the crowd increased.  
  
"I wonder what happened?" someone asked.  
  
"Whatever it is sonny boy, it wasn't good," the old woman snorted out.  
  
"Please don't be that way. It scares me," Fumiki pleaded.  
  
The old woman turned and looked as if she were about to say something unpleasant. She caught the look of fear in Fumiki face and froze. Letting out a sigh, the old woman said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you. I'm scared myself, I just don't deal with it well. Forgive me."  
  
Fumiki looked at her before replying, "That's okay." After a moment of thought, she continued, "I'm Fumiki, and this is my fiancé, Aki."  
  
The old woman eyes widened slightly so you can see the green eyes that were hidden by her half closed lids. "Oh? Well congratulations. How long have you been engaged?"  
  
Fumiki giggled nervously, "Just before - " she thumbed over to the vortex, "they showed up."  
  
"Well at least you'll have a story to tell your children when you get older," the older women said with a smile.  
  
Fumiki blushed slightly at that thought as the conversation died and silence ruled the scene.  
  
.................................  
  
Kakinomoto just tossed the microphone back into the car.  
  
"Come on. We got to block this street, not let anyone in or near the park."  
  
"What's going on?" Mushashibo asked.  
  
"I don't know for sure, but there's no way it can good," Mushashibo said. "Now get down on the other end of the street and -"  
  
Kakinomoto was cut off by a large, dull growling noise. Turning to see where it was coming from, both men were greeted by a large something that poked out from behind one of the support columns for the park gate. The thing had one of its arms raised, aimed at the two officers and it began to glow brightly. Instinctively both officers fled the patrol car and hit the ground just as a ball of light struck the parked vehicle. The patrol car exploded, sending smoke and pieces of itself high into the air that rained back down.  
  
Both officers, losing their caps as they scrabbled to their feet, ducked into a dress shop located across the street from the entrance to the park. They entered and slammed the door behind them. Panting, Kakinomoto turned to Mushashibo and thumbed at the people present who were in the middle of sorting through clothes on the racks, "Get these people out of here and use the back door," he ordered.  
  
Mushashibo wiped his brow and nodded.  
  
Kakinomoto then turned to the girl behind the counter, "Where is your phone? This is a police emergency."  
  
The girl blink-blinked for a second before waving her hand to the phone sitting openly beside her on the counter. Kakinomoto grabbed the receiver and dialed the number for dispatch as Mushashibo herded the customers and the shop workers out the back of the shop.  
  
"Come on, come on answer already," Kakinomoto said impatiently. "Finally! Okazaki, listen we have a situation at the park." Pause. "Yes I know." Pause. "Because the car got blown up that's why." Pause. "Yes. Now send some help."  
  
Kakinomoto looked up from his conversation and out the window at the park across the way. "Better call the military in on this... trust me. I think it might be a bunch of monsters or something."  
  
.................................  
_  
_Ranma was extremely busy as the steady stream of customers that were coming and going prevented her from having a moment to herself. She hadn't even been able to get the chance to talk to Akiko as she wanted in order to get her opinion on the matter. Ranma soon abandoned that idea, as the feelings that had begun twenty minutes ago faded to nothing.  
  
Ranma had just returned to the dining room after busing dirty dishes to the kitchen, as the relative peace of the early afternoon was broken by the roar of loud trucks. Drawn the noise outside, Ranma, Hitomi and most of the patrons of the restaurant all crowded to the front windows in time to see several army trucks disappear down the road and turn in the direction of the park. After the trucks were out of sight, all of the dinners returned to their tables talking and guessing about what could be going on. Ranma's bad feelings from earlier were starting to return with a vengeance, if the military had been called in to investigate the... whatever, then it must be serious.   
  
The customers muttered among themselves, trying to come up with an explanation as to why the military were tearing down the street. As with anything with no information to go on, the theories ran from the plausible to the ridiculous.  
  
"Did you see that..."  
  
"Those were real guns, weren't they..."  
  
"Is it an exercise..."  
  
"It's a revolt. I think they're trying to take over..."  
  
Ranma tuned the babbling din around her out and concentrated on the fabric of space, trying to track down where the trucks were going to see if they were really heading in the direction of the disturbance. It was no good. She could have detected it easily while transformed. But unless the source of what she was trying to track was powerful enough, her untransformed senses were useless. Ranma began fidgeting at the her inactivity, she then decided to check out what was going on - discretely.  
  
_"I'll just go back to the kitchen and into the storeroom. I'll have plenty of privacy there to transform and I'll be back before anyone knows I'm gone,"_ Ranma thought as she turned in the direction of the kitchen - only to be intercepted.   
  
"Waitress, can I get some tea?" a tired looking woman in a nice kimono asked.  
  
"Yes madam, I'll just be a moment," Ranma politely responded as she slipped between the chair backs of some seated diners, still heading toward the kitchen.  
  
"Excuse me miss, can I get the rest of this to go?" another patron asked while motioning toward his plate.  
  
"Yes sir, it'll just be..." Ranma was cut of by another person, who went as far as to wave over to her.  
  
"Miss, I need my check now please, " a man in a business suit called out as he glanced at his wristwatch.  
  
Ranma sighed and worked her way over. _"This is not going as planned,"_ she thought as she dug through her apron pocket and produced the requested bill. Since Akiko was in the back helping Yoshi, she wasn't be available to work the register. That duty was split between Ranma and Hitomi.   
  
"Here you are sir," Ranma said handing him the check while bowing. The business man adjusted his glasses, looked over the check carefully before reaching into his jacket pocket and producing a wallet. He then proceeded to count out the required amount.   
  
Slowly.   
  
_"Oh man, I gonna die of old age at this rate,"_ Ranma ranted to herself as she smile pleasantly on the outside while trying not to just leave.  
  
After the man had paid, Ranma once again attempted to head to the kitchen.  
  
"Young lady, my tea?" the lady in the kimono reminded Ranma.  
  
"Oh, yes. I'm so sorry," Ranma said as she tried to stay focused on what she felt needed to be done, but work was distracting her too much. Heading to the waitress station she brought a tea kettle and a to go box for the other diner she just remembered. Pouring the tea for the lady and taking care of boxing up the uneaten portion of the man's meal, then making change for his tab. All of this seemed maddeningly slow to Ranma.  
  
"_Finally,"_ Ranma thought after taking care of the demands of her diners, _"Forget about the kitchen, I'll just zip upstairs real quick and transform, check out what's going on and be back before I'm missed."_  
  
"Waitress, we're ready to order now," came a call from a group of people with three tables pushed together.  
  
"_Oh... oh... pooh,"_ Ranma flustered thoughts were as she headed toward her waiting customers.  
  
.................................  
  
General Takei looked through his binoculars, studying the scene in the park from the command post set up on a roof three quarters of a mile away. It didn't look good. There was a ring of people around the... whatever... and the rest of the things, for a lack of better word, were setting up a defensive perimeter around the park's border. _"Definitely a military operation,"_ he mentally concluded.   
  
He cursed the fact he was too far back to see what was really going on first hand, even with the help of the powerful binoculars. The scouts he sent should be reporting in to his subordinates soon and then maybe they could figure out what was going on.  
  
Takei sighed. He felt he did not have the manpower to deploy his troops as he desired and called up some reinforcements, with heavy weaponry, just in case. He was about to raise the binoculars up to his face when one of the lieutenants came up and saluted.  
  
"General Takei, sir. We have preliminary reports from the forward scouts," he said.  
  
"Report."  
  
"Collating the reports form our scouts we estimate there are about 2500 to 3000 of those things out there. They seem to be broken into two classes, basically one that is approximately the size of a man and another that's much larger." He paused for a breath before continuing, "We don't know what the actual differences are. They have deployed themselves along the edge of the park, setting up a obvious defensive perimeter."  
  
"A military operation?" the general asked, fishing for a second opinion to his earlier conclusion.  
  
"Yes sir. Most definitely," came the response.  
  
General Takei exhaled and went into deep thought. After a moment of contemplation, he looked up at his subordinate and asked, "What about the science division? Have we heard anything from them?"  
  
"Not yet, sir," the lieutenant answered.  
  
General Takei looked around his command post, lost in thought before motioning the young lieutenant over to a table surrounded by other officers. He placed his binoculars down beside him on the table and rested against it with his arms outstretched.  
  
"These things have demonstrated hostility so far and if more shooting starts I don't want any noncombatants in the way," he informed the lieutenant. "We need to get as many civilians out of the area as we can."  
  
General Takei then turned his attention to a map set up on a table that was protected from the elements by plastic lamination. His fingers darted along the surface as he mentally sized up what he felt was needed. Takei thought more deeply, tapping a few places on the map before taking a dry-erase marker and marking what he wanted.   
  
He spoke with authority to the group around the table, "Lieutenant Takai, when the reinforcements arrive, I want you to cordon off and evacuate Juuban, Moto, Minami, Roppongi south of Gaien-Higashi-dori and Nishi east of Gaien-Nishi-dori. Get with the local authorities and have them divert traffic from the major expressways leading through the area." He pointed to several major avenues that cut through the area to be cordon off.  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"Lieutenant Ashida," the general continued, addressing another officer at the table, "I'm making you the liaison officer for the meantime. I want you to contact Headquarters and get with someone in the government and start informing the embassies in the area." Pointing to several symbols that represented the Italian, Australian, and other embassies that were in the area. "Be polite, but firm in our suggestion that they evacuate. I also think it would be prudent to inform embassies nearby but outside the cordoned off area."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"Lieutenant Daishi, you are it charge of setting up relief stations for the evacuees. Coordinate with Lieutenant Takai on this and set up forward aid stations for any wounded that may come our way."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
The general sighed heavily, trying to think of anything that he might have overlooked.  
  
"Lieutenant Miyamoto, have Lieutenant Yano report to me as soon as the science people call," he instructed as he picked up his binoculars where he had set them.  
  
"Yes sir," the Lieutenant answered.  
  
"Dismissed," General Takei said as he turned to study the situation in the park and cursing what he felt was his poor vantage point.  
  
.................................  
  
Ranma had just returned to the dining room after busing dirty dishes from vacated tables. She had changed her plans on going upstairs and transforming and opted to try for the storeroom of the kitchen again. Yoshi however, was there and with Hitomi calling for help up front, the opportunity for minute of privacy was nil. Ranma was feeling a little frustrated by her desire to investigate based on her gut feelings, that were now nebulous at best, and trying to find just one moment alone so she could change to do so.   
  
Ranma was getting a little frazzled.  
  
She would not have minded so much except that her instinctive senses were once again rearing their ugly heads. They started from nothing and began slowly to progress into a feeling of something crawling under her skin, a sensation that demanded her attention. With everyone finally settled, distracted by eating their meals and talking to one another, Ranma saw an opportunity to leave. Ranma worked her way over to the ladies room door, a sure fire plan that had her wondering why she didn't think of it earlier.  
  
Reaching for the door knob, Ranma felt for sure she would be able to slip away and see what was going on.  
  
Rattle, Rattle  
  
Ranma blink-blinked as she looked at the door knob in her hand, wondering what could be the problem. It took a moment for her to register that the door was locked and the little red occupied slider was showing. Ranma mentally howled in frustration as she resisted the urge to tear the door off its hinges._  
  
_Behind her, at least three different voices were calling for service. Ranma's shoulder's sagged, as she sighed heavily. Working her way over to her demanding customers, she wondered if that foreign comic book super-hero Superman ever had these problems.  
  
.................................  
  
The five inner Sailor Scouts assembled just outside the edge of the park, trying to come up with a game plan.  
  
"What do you think?" Venus asked.  
  
Mercury, who was absorbed in examining some images on her computer, didn't reply right away. The other girls waited patiently while Mercury tapped away at the keyboard and raised an eyebrow every now and then. After a moment, Mercury looked up from her screen and said, "We're going to need help with this. A lot of help."  
  
"How much is a lot?" Venus asked.  
  
"As much as we can get. They are a whole lot of these things here," Mercury replied.  
  
"How many?" Moon asked.  
  
"According to the computer there are about 2789 of those things in and around the park."  
  
Silence.  
  
"2700?" Venus said incredulously.  
  
"Yes, according to the scans there are also two classes. The smaller ones would not that much of a problem, except there are a whole lot of them this time. The second ones are those big ones that pounded on us pretty good before we got smart and decided to take them down fast," Mercury informed.  
  
"What do we do?" Mars asked.  
  
"We have to get the hostages out of there. To do that we need everyone. Us, the Outers, the Japanese Defense Force and Sailor Sun." Mercury looked around. "Where is she?"  
  
"Maybe she's doesn't know yet," Moon ventured.  
  
"It's all over the news. How in the heck can she not know?" Mars asked tartly.  
  
"Maybe we should go get her," Venus suggested.  
  
"One thing at a time. Let's get the Outers here and see what the military is going to do. Maybe even coordinate with them," Mercury suggested.  
  
"You think that's wise? I mean, dealing with the military? We've always handled these things ourselves," Mars said questioningly.  
  
"We have no choice from what I can tell," Mercury answered. "We are just too out numbered. We need their help."  
  
"You think they'll listen?" Venus asked.  
  
"We'll make it so they don't have a choice but to listen. After all, we know more about these things than anyone else."  
  
"We must be careful in how we approach them though," Moon said.  
  
"Agreed. They can't do this without our help and we can't without theirs," Mercury said.  
  
"What do you mean?" Venus asked.  
  
"We have the firepower. Conventional weapons will work against these things, but not as effectively as they would against... human beings," Mercury said. "We can offer to fix it so they can."  
  
"How?"  
  
Mercury typed into her computer then continued, "We can infuse their weapons with some of our magic. According to the historic records, it's like what the Lunar Knights would have had done to their weapons, except what we do would not be as permanent. It would make their weapons capable of affecting the Protectors, damaging them and even killing them. But we must act quickly."  
  
"Lunar Knights?" Jupiter asked, joining in on the conversation.  
  
"Since finding out about Sailor Sun, I've been reading up on the history of the Moon Kingdom in my spare time," Mercury answered.  
  
"How do we help the JDF with their weapons?" Jupiter asked.  
  
Mercury turned the computer around, displaying the screen the the rest of the girls. "See," she said. "It is almost like when we combine our attacks. Except in this case we would combine our magical attack with an object - say like bullets or guns and bind the magic with it. The object would carry the magical effect with it for awhile. Long enough to use against the Protectors."  
  
"Okay. We'll have to get together with the Outers and coordinate with them. Then we deal with the military next, and if Sun doesn't show up soon, we'll send one of us to get her," Sailor Moon said.  
  
The other girls nodded in agreement. Before heading out toward the JDF's command post, they summoned the Outer Scouts and brought them up to speed. This was going to take all of them and then some.  
  
.................................  
  
General Takei was angry at first when eight short skirted girls showed up and requested his help in fighting these things. He was about to order them out of the area until one of his lieutenants informed him of what and who these girls were. He then vaguely remembered going to briefings where they touched upon these "Senshi", but didn't think anything about it at the time. As long as they were not considered a threat to Japan, he wasn't worried about them so he didn't really pay attention. A short and to the point demonstration of their... powers convinced him that they had information and resources that would be helpful in the current situation.  
  
He was listening patiently about the nature of the enemy when they were interrupted.  
  
"Sir," a lieutenant said as he saluted smartly. "We have just received word from command," he said while handing a folded slip of paper to the General.  
  
The general's eyebrows furrowed, then he let out a sigh. "It seems that the science division has confirmed your story about this being an extra-dimensional warp. Also, I have received orders to shut it down," he said the last almost to himself.  
  
"How?" Mars asked.  
  
"The orders say by any means necessary. It also said to try to keep civilian casualties to a minimum." General Takei then sighed again. "I don't know how, with all the people grouped around the warp and guarded like that."  
  
The general then looked at his lieutenant and asked, "What is the status of the reinforcements?"  
  
.................................  
  
A frustrated Ranma grabbed a rag to wipe down another just bused table, trying not to get too exasperated at the situation. Everything that could go wrong or get in her way of getting just one minute of privacy, had or did. If it wasn't one demanding customer it was another, or it was making change for some guy who needed it for the laundry matt across the street, or it was helping Hitomi with a very troublesome diner who insisted on a particular table in the crowded room, or a locked bathroom door, or a occupied storeroom, or people just flat out getting in the way.   
  
Putting it mildly, she was about to pop.   
  
Part of her felt like standing on a table and yelling at the crowded restaurant "Excuse me everyone, I think something nasty is nearby and I have to go check it out," transform and be on her way. A larger part chided her for thinking that and reminded her that a secret identity is only as good as it's a secret.   
  
_"What good's a secret if it gets people killed,"_ she fumed to herself. Not that she knew for sure that anyone was in danger, but these feelings she'd been having for the last hour or so weren't good ones. Something in the back of Ranma's mind kept reminding her of how secrecy was paramount, a large part of her agreed and another part could care less. So she sighed and fumed at the injustice of it all, wishing she decided to help out with the Art Show instead. At the school there would have been plenty of opportunities to slip out.  
  
_"Next time, I'll go to school instead,"_ Ranma thought bitterly.  
  
Ranma's thoughts were broken by the sound of even more trucks that were louder than the last bunch that had passed through earlier. Hustling again to the front windows along with everyone else, Ranma tried to see what was going on. The din was such that the windows were rattling in their frames. Ranma saw what was clearly more Japanese Defense Force trucks laden with men and equipment move quickly down the road, again in the direction of the park.  
  
There was more.  
  
Flatbed trucks, several of them, each carrying a tank. More were carrying what looked to Ranma like big guns, which was in fact what they were. As the caravan progressed down the street, more and more people came outside for a better look at the passing vehicles. Small groups of perplexed men were gathering, trying to come up with theories about what was going on.  
  
Hitomi spoke as she nervously rung a rag in her hands, "I wonder what is going on? I didn't hear anything about any military thing going on, have you?"  
  
Ranma shook her head as she backed away from the window. _"That's it, I'm outta here, I gotta find out what is going on. To hell with secrecy"_ she thought.  
  
Ranma was at that point determined to find someplace private to transform or to hell with secrecy and transform in front of a room full of people and leave. She had to find out what was going on, and she wanted to find out now. She didn't want to wait a moment longer anymore, the situation must be getting serious if the army had more troops moving in and she already wasted too much time waiting tables.   
  
It was at this time a Humvee drove up at that moment with loudspeakers attached to the roof and parked in front of the clothing store next door.  
  
SQUEAK "May I have your attention please. May I have your attention please." Pause, SQUEAK, pause. "All citizens are to evacuate this area immediately. You are in no immediate danger, however, we are asking you to do this for your own protection. Repeat..."  
  
The customers whispered among themselves as to what could be the matter, again different ideals were batted around from the plausible to the ridiculous. Ranma looked over worriedly at Akiko and Yoshi who by then were standing beside her.  
  
"Whatever could be the matter?" Akiko asked.  
  
"I don't know, but it must be something big for them to evacuate everyone," said one of the restaurant regulars.  
  
"I'll have to call the school and have Michiko come home right away," Akiko said with panic in her voice.  
  
Yoshi stood and surveyed the scene, lost in thought for a moment before turning to Ranma and Hitomi, "We must close as soon as possible. See about getting are customers out as quickly and as politely as possible."  
  
Both girls nodded and began leading the patrons back to their tables and offered to-go boxes for the uneaten portions of their meals. There were a few takers and within a surprisingly short time the dining room was vacated in an orderly manner. Once the customers had left, Yoshi then locked the door and reached for the cell phone that he kept in his pocket. He then punched in a number and quickly and softly spoke into it. Hitomi had gone to the back and retrieved her sweater and purse and stood waiting by the door all the while looking nervously out the window. Akiko had returned from the kitchen with a look of relief on her face.  
  
"Michiko is safe. They evacuated the school first thing and bused everyone over to Seisoke High School over in Shiba-Koen for safety," she informed Ranma.  
  
"Good. Whatever is happening must be big." Ranma then leaned forward and whispered to Akiko, "I got to leave and find out what's going on - you know what I mean."  
  
Akiko nodded, "Let's go upstairs where you'll have privacy to change." Just then Yoshi interrupted while walking up.  
  
"My family has already been moved out. They had the whole block loaded onto trucks and taking are them over to Shiba Park. The Army has set up a relief center on the park grounds. Let's go and see if we can catch up to them there."  
  
"You do that," Akiko said then added, "and please take Hitomi with you and make sure she is safe. Ranma and I will stay a bit and make sure that everything is locked and shut off here, then we'll try to join you there. "  
  
"Are you sure? Maybe it would be best if we stay together," Yoshi said worriedly.  
  
"You have nothing to worry about, except getting to your family. We'll be right behind you, now scoot," Akiko ordered in her firm, yet gentle way.  
  
Yoshi nodded, knowing better that to argue with his mother. He turned and headed for the door while removing his apron, then motioned Hitomi to follow. Then both Hitomi and himself exited the building and re-locked the door. Akiko and Ranma were then alone at the front of the restaurant. A haggard looking Ranma exhaled a breath she didn't know she was holding and looked up at Akiko before moving with her through the dining area and into the kitchen.  
  
"You do what you need to do, I'll take care of everything here," Akiko said.  
  
Ranma nodded, touched the magic that was in her and transformed.  
  
Akiko blink-blinked and studied Ranma who was now Sailor Sun. After a close examination she raised an eyebrow and commented, "Don't you think that outfit is a bit - short?"  
  
Ranma looked at her, then down at herself, shrugged her shoulders and replied, "I like it."  
  
Akiko smiled at Ranma warmly, then her face became a mask of seriousness, "You be careful, I wouldn't want anything to happen to you."  
  
"Don't worry about me granny. I'll be fine, just make sure you're safe, okay?"  
  
A quick hug and Sailor Sun, stretched out her full senses and detected the other Scouts. She summoned her sword into her waiting hand. Sun slashed making a cut in the air behind her and stepped through the opening in space.  
  
.................................  
  
General Takei was not happy.  
  
First the local police notified the military that there was some kind of monstrous activity going on at the park and they lost the patrol car of the two officers that went to investigate. Takei arrived at the scene which turned out to be a hostage situation with some creatures from another dimension and who knows what they wanted. Then the Sailor Scouts show up and inform him that this was a vanguard of an extra dimensional invasion and requested his help in fighting it. Then the science people get involved and confirmed for him what the Senshi said about the vortex thing being some kind of dimensional warp. Then after passing all that information up the food chain to the top, what came down wasn't good.  
  
He was to insure that the dimensional gate was shut down. He was to attack as soon as practical and try to keep the civilian causalities to a minimum. To a minimum. How in the hell did command expect him to do that when they're all sitting at ground zero? He knew that there would be a great loss of life and being the one in command, he would be to blame in the public eye no matter what the circumstances were.   
  
He was also sure his superior officers were aware of that too.  
  
No matter what he did or how he planned, he was screwed.  
  
Some days it just sucks to be in charge.  
  
A captain came up with a folder, "General Takei, Sir. We have some more accurate intelligence on the numbers of the invaders."  
  
"Report."  
  
"It appears that we have approximately two thousand of the man size invaders and approximately five hundred of the larger ones."  
  
The General thought how the numbers were in the range given to him by the Senshi. So far the information the Senshi had given him jived with what his intelligence had found out.  
  
"How are they armed?" he finally asked.  
  
"There does not appear to be any external weaponry. However we have located several witnesses that saw one of the larger invaders destroy a police car with some kind of high energy weapon that they claim came directly from its hand." The captain paused to catch his breath, "The science people think that the weaponry is built into the invaders and we must assume that all are armed in some way."  
  
The command post went silent as the other officers and Senshi looked on at the general, who was apparently lost in thought. He was wondering what he was going to do. Every approach and entrance to the park was guarded, so that meant that there was no chance of surprise. General Takei was trying to think of the best way to approach the park without incurring the deaths of many innocent people. Sighing heavily he turned to the Senshi who were gathered at one end of the Command post.  
  
"Can you help us get the hostages out?" he asked very directly.  
  
Moon nodded, answering for all the Scouts behind her, "Yes." She then turned to Mercury beside her on her left, "We need Sailor Sun. Here. Now."  
  
.................................  
  
Ranma stepped through the opening she had created in space. She found herself behind a group of short skirted girls she knew so very well from her dreams. Sun arrived just in time to hear, "We need Sailor Sun. Here. Now."  
  
In spite of the obvious seriousness of the situation Sun had walked into, she couldn't help herself.  
  
"You rang?" She spoke softly in an almost musical way. The Senshi jump and turned. Moon's reaction was predictable.  
  
"EEEEK!Don'tdothat!You'reasbadasPlutois!Whydoyoualltrytoscaretheheckouttame?"  
  
Sun blinked and looked into Sailor Moon and realized, _"Her eyes, they're so much like Serenity's." _Sun then bowed deeply, "I'm sorry." Sun held her bow, "I should have warned you of my approach. Please forgive me."  
  
Moon looked at Sun and blink-blinked. Pluto had never apologized like that for scaring her. Anyone who apologized so formally and deeply surely must have meant it. Sun was well on her way to being on the good side of Sailor Moon.  
  
"It's okay. Um... just try not to get behind me," Moon said adding a gentle smile.  
  
"Excuse me," General Takei said, "Did you just step out of thin air?"  
  
"Err... not exactly," Sun said while eyeing the General. "I just made a hole in the fabric of space/time, snagged where I wanted to go, folded space between the two points, stepped through and here I am."  
  
General Takei blinked-blinked and continued to stare at Sun.  
  
"Okay," Sailor Sun said. "Yes, I stepped out of thin air."  
  
"Oh," General Takei thought a moment. Fixing the new Scout with a firm look he asked, "What can you tell me about that?" Motioning to the scene in the of the park.  
  
"It's a forced juncture between this universe and another," Sun replied just as firmly as she had been asked. This was something that the general already knew.  
  
"Can you shut it down?" The General then asked.  
  
"Yes, but we mustn't. Not yet," came Sun's reply.  
  
"Why not? I have orders to shut the thing down. Why shouldn't we?"  
  
"Because if we do, they'll just open up another juncture somewhere else. We should try to keep them here tied to this spot, where we know where they are," Sun replied.  
  
A somewhat tall man in his forties wearing a disheveled jacket being escorted by an officer entered the roof top command post . He sported a goatee with no mustache, behind the dark rimed glasses his eyes sparkled with intelligence. He was clearly excited by what was going on.  
  
"This is marvelous, simply marvelous," he said excitedly while walking up to the general.  
  
General Takei looked at the newcomer and over at the lieutenant questionably. The escorting officer immediately got the hint and made the introductions, "I'm sorry sir, this is Dr. Ikari from the science division. He was sent to look at the thing out there and insisted on checking it out first before reporting to you. Dr. Ikari this is General Takei."  
  
"This is absolutely fantastic. Such a thing should not exist. The power to create and maintain this... this wormhole must be astronomical," he rubbed his hands together with glee.  
  
"How do you mean?" the general asked, his curiosity peaked.  
  
"Well, just creating one would have taken a great deal of 'exotic matter'. You would have to produce a great deal of it to create this... I want to think about how that was accomplished," he thought aloud. Wiping his forehead the Doctor then began to pace back and forth, talking more to himself than to the surrounding people.   
  
"Keeping it open would have required either more power to offset the matter entering it or - you see..." he looked around while adjusting his glasses and gathered his thoughts before addressing the general.   
  
"You see... 'exotic matter' is matter that gravitically repels normal matter instead of attracting it. As far as we know this is required to construct a wormhole," at this point the doctor resumed his pacing. "By finding naturally occurring wormhole in the quantum foam and pouring exotic matter into it you could widen it to travel through it... " he stopped his pacing, facing the direction of the park, "but how would you direct it?"   
  
He then began talking to himself again, "If you have enough exotic matter to create a tunnel, you can travel between both ends freely - if you can keep the tunnel itself open." He took a breath, turned and faced the general again and spoke on, "You see gravity itself would want to close the openings of the wormhole - and any mass introduced into it would be enough to close it."  
  
"So how would you go about keeping one open?'" Mercury asked.  
  
"Well, young... ah... lady," the Dr. Ikari answered while looking at her over his glasses, "you would have to either have enough energy keep it open to overcome the mass introduced into the wormhole or you would have to find a way to negate the mass. You would have to solve this problem before you could travel using a wormhole, they are after all, naturally unstable."  
  
Then he though to himself out loud, "Maybe a combination of both... Hmmm." At this point Dr. Ikari whipped out a calculator and started plugging numbers into it, shaking his head.  
  
General Takei signed to himself and waited for the doctor to continue, hoping something useful information would come out.  
  
"With the amount of power it must be taking to establish a fixed, stable wormhole and allow matter to transverse through it, the only way to shut it down would be to deprive it of the power source keeping it open or introduce enough mass into the wormhole to collapse it," Dr. Ikari concluded.  
  
"Like a black hole if the force keeping the wormhole open were powerful enough," Sun spoke.  
  
"Yes, if the amount of stabilizing power is enough, you may have to overcome it by that much mass," Dr. Ikari agreed.  
  
"What should we do?" asked Mercury.  
  
"I can only tell you what needs to be done, I can't tell how to do it," the doctor said with a shrug of his shoulders.  
  
Thank you Doctor, General Takei said coldly.  
  
"What is the full situation?" Sun inquired to Mercury.  
  
"Well..." Mercury filled Sun in on what had happened to that point. Afterwards, Sun stood there mentally assessing the situation when her thoughts were interrupted by Mars.  
  
"By the way... what took you so long? We were getting ready to send someone after you." Mars spoke in a demanding way that rubbed Sun the wrong way.  
  
Sun paused and looked at the longed hair Senshi, bit back a sharp retort and replied, "I was busy."  
  
"Busy? Doing what? Don't you watch the news? Its been all over the place..."  
  
Mars was about continue when General Takei intervened. "First order of business is to free the hostages," he said, putting the conversation back on track. "Do you have any ideas?"  
  
Sailor Sun thought for a moment, "If I can take care of all the guards at the front gates, in the park and surrounding the hostages, how long would it take you to get all the hostages out?"  
  
"Lieutenant?" the General said while motioning his subordinate forward.  
  
"We have strike teams waiting here, here and here," he informed while pointing out places on the map on the table before them. "If you can do as you say, we should be able to get in, secure the area and evacuate the hostages out in about fifteen minutes."  
  
"In and out in fifteen minutes," he thought for a moment. "Have you arranged for the transportation as I instructed?" General Takei asked of his lieutenant.  
  
"Yes sir," the lieutenant answered. He then swallowed hard and continued, "We managed to commandeer about eight buses and coupled with some of our trucks, we can move all of them out rather quickly and into the aid stations that were set up."  
  
"How long would it take to infuse our weapons with your magic?" The General asked of the Senshi.  
  
"Not long. With nine of us working and going around - say about twenty minutes?" Mercury ventured a guess, the other girls nodded in agreement, except for Sun.  
  
I don't know how to do that, sun said. I was never shown how to combine my magic with another's much less an object.  
  
Well, with eight of us it shouldn't take much longer, Mercury responded.  
  
"Okay," Sun said. "I'll wait here for word that you have finished doing that and then I'll take care of the guards. It shouldn't take long," Sun said. The General raised an eyebrow at that, Sun noticed this and said, "I can move really, really fast."  
  
The general grunted at this, "Very well, I'll have my lieutenants inform our forces to expect you, have them radio in when you are through - infusing, was the word?" Mercury nodded, "- our weapons."  
  
.................................  
  
Fumiki heard Aki sigh. Looking over she noticed that Aki was looking in the direction of the front gates, looking lost in thought.  
  
"What are you thinking?" Fumiki asked in a low whisper.  
  
"I'm wondering why we haven't heard anything. I would think that the police would have shown up by now," he answered.  
  
"Maybe they have and went to get more help," Fumiki ventured.  
  
"That's probably what happened," the old lady sitting on the other side of Fumiki said. "They probably took one look at these ugly brutes and took off for more help."  
  
"I hope something happens soon," Fumiki said looking back to Aki. "I'm getting nervous just sitting around - especially near that thing," she finished with a nod of her head toward the vortex.  
  
"It does give one the willies, doesn't it?" the old lady said.  
  
"Yeah," Aki whispered. "Like... itches across your skin or something."  
  
Somewhere in the crowd a child started to cry again, whether it was the same child as earlier, they couldn't tell.  
  
"I wish something would happen," sighed Aki.  
  
"Don't be in a hurry young man," the old woman chided. "Wishing for the something you might not want yet."  
  
Aki and Fumiki just looked at the elderly woman as the conversation died once again.  
  
.................................  
  
Private First Class Okamoto didn't mind admitting to himself that he was a little scared. He was not, however going to admit that or show that in front of anyone else. Especially in front of his buddies that he had been with since basic training. Training for something like this and actually doing it were two different things he soon discovered. If it wasn't for the training he'd gotten and the subtle support he received and returned to his fellow soldiers, he would have probably booked out of there. No, he was no coward, but seeing something like headless things shooting small balls of light from their arms at parked cars along the street was not what he envisioned when he joined the JDF.  
  
When they were first deployed, Okamoto thought that this was a unannounced practice drill. When they arrived outside Juuban Park they were all briefed on the possibility of terrorist activities. Japan was no stranger to terrorists. The history of one cult had proven that in the past, when the cult gassed attack Tokyo subways with fatalities. Okamoto, thinking it was something along those lines, set up a machine gun nest opposite the front gates while the rest of his squad got ready to move in at a moment's notice. That's when, looking through binoculars, Okamoto got his first good look at what the terrorists were. He shuddered at the memory of what he saw.  
  
They weren't human. Okamoto had the overpowering feeling that the thing was watching him as he watched it. It was an unnerving and creepy feeling, considering that the thing had no visible eyes.  
  
Okamoto didn't know what to think.   
  
An hour later, word came down from the top to expect a visit from a Sailor Scout. Okamoto wondered at first what the Navy had to do with this operation. Soon a girl with long black hair and wonderfully long legs wearing a very short red skirt showed up. To Okamoto she seemed pretty even though for some reason he couldn't really see her face when she was ten feet in front of him. Okamoto and the rest of the men in his company were ordered to form up and prepared to have their weapons treated. The strangely beautiful girl began some kind of movements that reminded Okamoto of a ballet that he saw with his younger sister. The short skirted girl finished in a pose with her arms outstretched and what looked like flames that broke up into tiny balls of light coming from her fingertips.  
  
The guns and other equipment that Okamoto and his fellow soldiers had started to attract the motes of light and began to gathered around them. The weapons glowed for a moment as the points of light formed around them before fading, leaving everything as it was. The strange, long haired girl, who Okamoto thought of asking for a date, then moved on.  
  
It wasn't until after she was gone, that Okamoto wondered what it was all about.  
  
.................................  
  
"Sir, the last unit has called in. All our weapons have been treated by the Sailor Scouts," the lieutenant reported.  
  
"Everything's ready, let's go," General Takei said.  
  
Sun nodded and compressed time. To those who watched, she seemed to disappear. Sun leapt out of the Command Post that was on the roof and gently landed onto the street below. There she summoned her sword and went to work. Walking toward the park entrance Sun took out the Protectors stationed there by cutting them in half. It was kind of weird slicing the things down the middle or to the side and both halves would stay together as one. The only indication of Sun's passing was a thin bisecting line in their bodies.  
  
Entering the park and working her way over to where the hostages were being held, Sun cut down every Protector she ran across. Plus a few she went out of her way to get at. She felt she had plenty of time with the amount of power she was putting into her time field. To her it has been about 45 minutes yet not even 1/100th of a second had passed in normal time. She decided to take the entire force of invading Protectors out - after all she had the power and the all the time she needed. She would remove the guards around the hostages first and work her way around the park.  
  
Walking around the area where the hostages were being corralled she swung her sword here and there, cutting the guards in half. Working up and down the rows of seated people she almost casually sliced at the guards. Sun was very cautious though, in spite of her almost whimsical looking attitude for she was aware that she was surrounded by innocent people. After she had finished up the guards and before moving on to the other Protectors that ringed the park, Sun decided to investigate the wormhole more closely.  
  
Sun noticed the blueish gummy clumps adhering to the edges of the vortex that also seem to support it. _"That's must be what they're using to power and stabilize the wormhole on this end," _Sun thought.  
  
Stopping just inside the ring of hostages in front of the wormhole, Sun extended extended her senses into it. She detected some kind of mass from within. Alarmed, Sun reached further and powered those senses into the blueish haze a little more. She found that the channel between our universe and the universe of the Protectors was full of...  
  
... troops. A lot of troops, heading this way.  
  
Sun thought some more, _"I have to do something about this. I could get close to the opening and fire a Solar Flare into it. Not too powerful of one though, too many people that are too close."  
_  
Looking about her some more, she realized that the ring of people was just too nearby to deal with the oncoming troops. Even though Sun trained hard to limit her attack, she still didn't feel comfortable enough to attempt it with all these people here. Sun would have to wait until the area was clear. Without the magical protection that she and the other scouts had, even getting near her when she launched a Solar Flare would be deadly.  
  
She shook her head, _"Better not risk it. If I miscalculate even a little, a lot of people will end up dead." _Sun opted instead for a closer look at the wormhole.  
  
As Sun approached the large opening she noticed something, the air before her was distorting. At first she thought it was some kind of optical illusion being caused by the wormhole itself. The fact that it was right in front of her and kept getting worse as she neared but that idea aside.  
  
_"What the heck is this?"_ she thought as the distortion grew. It wasn't hindering her movements in any way or keeping her from approaching the wormhole, but it still didn't change the fact that there was something going on. Something that she should know, but couldn't remember what.  
  
Sun stopped and studied the phenomenon and noticed how the distortion looked like oil mixing with water in mid air. _"No! It's like... two... things meeting. Colliding... but what?"_ Sun pondered this mystery, before concluding, _"I hate not knowing something I should know."_  
  
With a shrug of her shoulders, Sun pressed on. Moving closer to the wormhole, the distortion turned into streaks of light striking against one of Sun's fields. The appearance was that of rain water striking a windshield. Sun chose to ignore this - figuring that she could handle anything that was thrown her way...  
  
... then she unexpectedly reentered real time.  
  
The guards she had sliced before fell into or exploded into sludge. That was the signal that mobilized the other Scouts and the JDF to move in.  
  
Sun hadn't finished clearing the park yet.  
  
.................................  
  
Nothing was heard until orders came down to prepare to move in on the park. The signal to do so being when the alien creatures at the front gates were taken out. Okamoto and his unit's job would be to move in and protect and provide cover for the teams that would get the hostages out. So Okamoto and his friends watched the creatures as they meandered back and forth, on guard looking with unseen eyes. As they waited for the sign to move out, the soldiers passed the time checking and rechecking their own and each other's equipment and talking.  
  
Ariwa turned to Okamoto, "You think anything will happen soon?"  
  
Okamoto replied, "I don't know, just watch the... creatures. Then we'll know."  
  
Haga who was to Okamoto right said, "Did you see the legs on that chick that came by here? They went all the way up to her neck. Man, what I'd do to go out with her. I wonder if she's single?"  
  
Okamoto answered, "I think maybe she's kind of young for you. Besides, don't you already have a steady girl?"  
  
Haga looked at Okamoto with a mock hurt expression on his face. "You know I do. Just because I'm attached, doesn't mean I'm dead. Besides, you were checking her out pretty good yourself. I'm surprised your eyes are still in your head."  
  
Okamoto looked flustered, "I'm not that bad."  
  
Haga looked past Okamoto to Ariwa, "So says the only virgin in our outfit."  
  
"Hey!" Okamoto exclaimed indigently as Ariwa chuckled.  
  
"Is there a problem soldier?" a voice with authority asked from behind.  
  
The three soldiers jumped and turned to see their captain behind them. "No. No Captain Ichigawa, sir. We were just all wondering when we'll see some action. That's all," Haga stammered out.  
  
"Just watch those things out there," the major motioned with his hand. "Then you'll know."  
  
"Yes sir," Haga said.  
  
Turning back to face the gates of the park, the whole unit seemed to grow impatient. It hadn't really been that long. It's just that when you're waiting for something to happen, time seems to drag on and on. It also always seems that when the human mind gives up on something ever happening is when things start to happen. Case in point: Okamoto, tried of waiting and getting a case of nerves considered hitting the can. That's when the creatures guarding the front gates just exploded out of existence in a shower of gory sludge.  
  
Okamoto, Ariwa and Haga were stunned for a split second by the suddenness of the event. Until their commander, Captain Ichigawa began yelling, "Come on men! What are you waiting for, an invitation? Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!"  
  
The three, along with about two hundred other men, rushed into and through the park gates. Fanning out widely, Okamoto and his companions kept their weapons at the ready, looking for any signs of the enemy. First entering the park all they found were puddles of slime on the ground. Working their way toward where the hostages were being kept, Okamoto and his friends were taken by surprise by a large thing that suddenly reared from behind some bushes and extended a glowing arm in the direction of the soldiers.  
  
"Holy shit!" Haga cried out as he raised his gun. It was too late, too late for the creature that is. A lance of fire hit it squarely in the chest, cutting it down. Looking behind them, the three JDF soldiers were greeted by the same Sailor Scout that treated their weapons. She smiled at them and winked before disappearing further into the park.  
  
Okamoto turned to Haga, "Still wanna ask her for a date?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Come on, let's move!" the captain's voice boomed in the distance somewhere.  
  
The three soldiers kept moving, this time with their weapons more ready.  
  
.................................  
  
The pseudo-cat was surprised by how swiftly the Old Moon Kingdom warrior had decimated the guards that were watching over the hostages and the troopers that were stationed at the main gate. This new threat was different from the other warriors they had been feeling out for the last few weeks. This one was entirely too fast and powerful for any of the pseudo-cat sensors to get readings on. One second the warrior, or Scout as they were referred to here, was conversing with the other Scouts and the local military. The next she was in the middle of the ring of people around the wormhole with a swath of dead troopers in her wake. The pseudo-cat studied the situation and readied itself to deploy the Protectors ultimate weapon: the Super Duper Trooper.  
  
.................................  
  
Sun looked around frantically, wondering what the hell just happened. One moment she was taking out the bad guys and the next... the wormhole! How could she have forgotten?! It punches a hole and distorts space. Since space and time are interlocked, it disrupted her own time field.  
  
"Crap," was Sun's only comment to this unpleasant surprise.  
  
Sun dashed away from the interfering wormhole and felt the space around her for any incoming Protectors that would have witnessed their companions fall. There were a few and she felt the need to take them out before they alerted any of the others. Sun went back into compressed time... or tried to.  
  
"What the heck is going on here?" she ranted to herself as she tried to force the compression. Before it was natural, now she really had to concentrate on it, something she wasn't used to.  
  
Something was very wrong.  
  
Examining her time field, Sun discovered to her dismay that the field was unstable and wildly fluctuating. Feeding more power into it, she tried to stabilize the field and enter compressed time again - this time with interesting results. Instead of everything freezing like she was used to, everything seemed to freeze and speed up again, all matching the beat of fluctuating time field.  
  
It was so disorienting that Sun quickly abandoned trying to stay in compressed time and decided to work out the problem later, after the hostages were cleared out. The hostages for the most part where stunned by the sudden loss of their guards, just sat there looking around themselves confused, making no effort to move.  
  
"What's wrong with you people? Get out!" Sun yelled provoking some of the crowd to their feet.  
  
Spying a large group of approaching Protectors, Sun rushed them and was about to prepare a Solar Flare to deal with them. She stopped herself as she remembered that too many people were too close and if she screwed up, a lot of people could get killed. With her time field acting up, Sun couldn't even do her "friction" attack that she'd spent so much time perfecting for close quarter work.   
  
It was time to get back to the basics.  
  
With sword in hand, Sun charged into the oncoming Protectors that were moving to intercept the hostages that had enough wits to flee. With one stroke Sun cut two of the attackers down and delivered a roundhouse kick with such force that a third Protector was crushed into sludge. The last four were taken out by something that Sun hadn't done in quite sometime, since she first discovered she was Sailor Sun. Her ki training.   
  
Sun focused on an emotion she hadn't used in quite sometime, since she was thrown out into the streets and lost her confidence...  
  
... and found it again. Focusing her will, Sun channeled her ki through her body and lauched it toward the Protectors.  
  
"Moko Takabisha!" Sun yelled out unnecessarily, but it was good to hear it anyway.  
  
A very large ball of controlled, super charged ki shot from Sun's hand and vaporized the last of the Protectors.   
  
Sun smiled.  
  
.................................  
  
The Scouts were at the point of the attack, using their magic to take down some of the larger Protectors that had hidden themselves behind or in some of the tall bushes. The JDF, with their automatic weapons, took out the smaller ones as they tried to intercept the combined forces and cut them off from entering the park. Sailor Sun retreated to the wormhole, opposite of the front gates where the hostages were being evacuated. From there she had a good vantage point for any of the Protectors from that side of the outer perimeter of the park that tried to make their way back toward where the people were.  
  
Sun was careful not to attempt to compress time near the wormhole because that the field was slowly stabilizing.  
  
Once inside the park, some of the JDF forces set up a protective ring around the hostages that were still seated as other soldiers moved in and got the stunned people to their feet and moving toward the gates. More soldiers assisted in herding the mass toward the front gate and into waiting trucks and buses that had been commandeered for the rescue.  
  
The rest of the Scouts rushed up to Sailor Sun. Mercury asked, "How did you do that? My computer couldn't detect anything."  
  
"I'll be happy to tell you later, right now we're going to have company - and a lot of it," Sun said with a hint of worry while thumbing toward the wormhole.  
  
"What's coming?" Neptune asked.  
  
"More of these - Protectors. I felt a whole bunch of them. They must be reinforcements for what is already here." Sun's natural combat leadership skills were starting to come alive at this point, "I need a clear field of fire so I can do a Solar Flare and clear the channel out. How much longer for the evacuation to finish?"  
  
"In a few more minutes the park should be clear of any people."  
  
"Good, how are the JDF holding up?"  
  
"Well with their weapons magically enhanced, the JDF can hold their own for awhile. The magic won't last long though," Mercury said while removing her computer from stuff space. "If the current rate of degradation holds, then they will have about an hour of effectiveness before the level of magic fades."  
  
"I hope that will be enough time," Sun said while watching for stragglers among the people being cleared out. "We don't have much time and a lot of these -"  
  
Sun was cut off as the wormhole began hissing loudly. She was surprised, they were arriving far sooner than she thought, how can that be? The wormhole flared a brighter blue and sprang into life as more of the fleshy things started to pour out of its wide aperture. Sailor Sun quickly repositioned herself in front of the opening and began to gathered her energy in her hand for a Solar Flare. Taking one quick look around and chastising herself for continually falling back on an attack so instinctive to her, she realized that the area hadn't been cleared yet.  
  
That what she gets for trying to depend on one thing to get by.  
  
Changing plans, Sun summoned her sword and began to hack away.  
  
"Dammit! I need some help here," she shouted as she launched a Moko Takabisha across the wormholes mouth taking a bunch of Protectors trying to exit. The other scouts were already in the middle of powering up their magic to assist in the defense.  
  
The Scouts combined their attacks and with the aid of Sailor Sun, who was using her sword and firing off Moko Takabishas, were able to keep the invading forces at bay by cutting them down as they came through the wormhole. Before the Senshi got their wits together for a defense, a large group of Protectors managed to slip by them. These Protectors managed to fire off balls of plasma from their arms, sending explosions around the scene before being cut down. A few of the hostages that were straggling were nearly hit, but Ranma couldn't tell if any were hurt or not for she was preoccupied in helping hold the brunt of the invasion force at bay.  
  
.................................  
  
Fumiki was pulled to her feet by a uniformed young man and dragged in the direction of the park entrance. There were loud popping noises that she guessed were gunfire, never having heard the sound of real gunfire before. The only thing she was used to hearing was what she heard in the movies. The old lady that was seated beside her was caught up in the same wave of people that were being herded and on her other side...  
  
... Aki wasn't there! Where could he be? Fumiki hesitated for a moment as she craned her neck around hoping to catch a glimpse of Aki anywhere. She was quickly pulled along and chastised by another man in uniform for slowing the flow of people from the park. A hissing sound was heard and explosions rocked the area. Fumiki lost her footing as someone slammed into her right side, bringing her to her knees. Fumiki held her side were the unknown person struck her and tried to catch some of the wind that had been knocked out of her.  
  
More loud popping sounds were heard, much closer and deafening. The air filled with the smell of gunpowder.  
  
Hands grabbed her roughly around the shoulders and she found herself once again pushed and pulled toward the waiting park entrance. Getting her wits about her, she held her injured side and concentrated on moving toward the front gates and looking for Aki.  
  
He was nowhere to be seen.  
  
.................................  
  
The pseudo-cat concentrated. On the side of its fake cat body appeared a large boil that grew until it ruptured the skin and burst forth. The fur and skin of the pseudo-cat resealed itself as the pseudo-cat sagged to the ground, spent from the exertion of releasing the Super Duper Trooper. The blob that it deposited shivered like jelly and was still. After a few moments the blob began to swirl with a blueish color and little blue specks of blue light dancing about it.  
  
Each speck began to glow before dulling into flesh-colored blobs that joined together and grow until it resembled its companion troopers. The only difference in appearance was its size. It was a good one third larger than even the largest trooper to have come through so far. It's vaguely human shaped body without a head tilted downward in the direction of the pseudo-cat.  
  
The pseudo-cat raised its head and began to communicate the current situation to the Super Duper Trooper. The SDT stood over the prone pseudo-cat absorbing all the information while it was finishing forming and powering itself up. The first goal would be to eliminate the Old Moon Kingdom warrior identified as Sailor Sun. The second would be to secure this end of the wormhole. Deal with the threat first and secure passage for the rest of the force that was trying to get through. Simple and straight forward instructions.  
  
Making a wormhole was a power intensive process. Even with all the resources that the Protectors had, creating one where they could move an army through was taxing their energy resources. Securing this end was paramount to the plan. If they couldn't then they would have to try to spur the existing one off, taxing the power sources on the Protector's end even more. The stabilizers that were place around the edges of the wormhole drew power from this universe and helped power the juncture. This opening between the universes must be allowed to function unobstructed and unhindered.  
  
The SDT sized up the situation and then leapt high into the air. It locked onto its primary target, the Scout known as Sailor Sun.  
  
.................................  
  
Sun was busy helping the other scouts fight back the tide of Protectors when she spotted more coming in their direction from the outer areas of the park.  
_  
"Great, just what we needed," _Sun thought unhappy at the turn of events as she dashed over to intercept the oncoming enemy.   
  
Still fearing in using the Solar Flare, Sun hoped to compress time and use the heat of her friction to mow down the newcomers. Feeling she was far enough from the interference of the wormhole to make an attempt, Sun powered that field. She found even though it had stabilized a great deal she was having problems getting the amount of time compression she was use to.   
  
Generating friction in compressed time and funneling the super heated air through her fields using a warp in space, she burned dozens of Protectors down. The many Protectors that were attacking meant that Sun had to keep moving between compressed time and real time, this was causing problems.  
  
Her successful defense was soon becoming a strain. Sun found that moving back in forth from compressed time to normal was slowly but surely taxing her. Also the amount of shear will it required her to move back and forth between real time and compressed time was having an effect on her combat efficiency.  
  
Sun blamed this on the effect the wormhole had on her time field and a lack of training. She would usually spend her time in compressed time or normal time and had not really practiced going back in forth between the two like she had been doing. She found to her dismay that too much back and forth coupled with whatever happened to her time field was slowly wearing her down.  
  
_"There's gotta be a way to stop these things. At this rate we'll be overrun,"_ Sun thought frantically. Looking around for something, anything, to stem the tide she spotted Saturn off to the side felling a few of the Protectors that came her way with her Glaive. Something reached into the depths of Sun's mind and clicked.  
  
"Saturn! Get over here!" Ranma screamed over the noise of battle as another batch of oncoming Protectors tried to force their way through the wormhole. Ranma burned down some of the newcomers with a Moko Takabisha, the other Scouts took their share. Saturn responded to Sun's call. Weaving around the fighting and cleaving a few of the enemy here and there she was soon at Sun's side.  
  
"Can you throw your wall thingy over the wormhole's opening?" Sun asked over the din.  
  
Saturn blinked, _"Wall thingy?"_ Then she realized what Sun had referred to, nodded and yelled an attack that got lost in the sound of the fighting.  
  
The Silence Wall formed over the mouth of the wormhole. It was almost comical to watch the oncoming Protectors slam into the barrier and flatten out, some even splatting into sludge.  
  
"That should buy us some time. Can you hold it there?" Sun asked tiredly.  
  
"For a while, it's a bit of a strain," Saturn answered, trying to sound brave.  
  
"You're gonna have to hold it as long as you can until the all the people have cleared out of the area. Can you do it?"  
  
"I'll try," the littlest Senshi replied.  
  
Sun smiled and turned back to the fight. She flowed through the battle-lines and took out the few Protectors that were left with her sword. Upon slaying the last one that was around the wormhole, Sun on a whim held her fingers in a "V" for victory pose.  
  
That's when she noticed something large from above bearing down on her.  
  
.................................


	15. Juunban part 13

  
  
I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine for pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.  
  
Constructive criticism always welcome.  
  
Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
I don't own any of these characters or situations, this is done purely for fun. As always the spelling errors are mine, as are the grammar mistakes. I still have hopes that I am getting better by now and there are less of them.  
  
=====================  
  
Juuban part 13  
  
-------------------------------  
  
Fumiki was loaded onto the bus being pushed along by the crush of people that were fanatically trying to escape the violence that suddenly erupted in the park. The popping noises were now surrounding them, coming from in and around the area. The orderly evacuation deteriorated into a mad rush as people scrambled to get out of the park. Fumiki thought she saw one of the things fire something at someone, but she couldn't tell. Everything was so fast and confused that she didn't realize she was on a bus until she heard someone yell, "That's the last of them go! Go! Go!"  
  
Fumiki, holding her side, collected her wits and scanned the people's faces on the bus hoping to find Aki. As the bus rumbled along, she turned her head to examine the faces behind her.  
  
Nothing.  
  
He wasn't here.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
Sailor Sun held her pose before becoming aware of a large on-coming-thing. It was much larger than the other Protectors that she had just disposed of. This one would tower over her if she was standing next to it. Even though appearance-wise it followed the same pattern as the others, there was something different about it, something about the way it flowed through the fabric of space. Sun realized that there were small and tightly controlled warpages of space coming from within it. For what purpose she could only guess at.  
  
Alarm bells rang in her head, like when she approached the wormhole for the first time.  
  
She chose once again to ignore the vague warnings.  
  
_"This is going to be easy,"_ Sun thought confidently to herself as the overgrown Protector rapidly neared. She glanced over to make sure that she was a safe distance of the interfering wormhole, then compressed time and attacked at the same moment. It was in that moment she realized something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.   
  
The rain of interfering warpages from the descending Protector destabilized and collapsed the time compression field of Sun almost the instant she tried to power it up. With such force that when the time field collapsed, that there was a "rebound" effect. The energy that was channeled into the shattered time field warped the space around Sun violently. The spatial distortions had an affect on the Protector as it descended through it.  
  
The Protector seemed to shudder and swell up, and pieces of it seemed to drift apart from the main body. It landed with a splat before Sun. Then just as quickly the whole mass bounded away and collected itself. It stood there, twenty feet away, wavering as if uncertain over what had just occurred.  
  
Even though dismayed at the situation, Sun quickly took advantage the Protectors distraction. She charged and attacked with chestnut speed with her sword. Her movements, boosted by her Senshi state, broke the sound barrier with sharp cracking sounds. With sweeps of her sword, the large humanoid thing was bisected and bisected again in several sections that crisscrossed its grotesque body.  
  
"That should be - ," Sun spoke aloud before her field of vision was filled with a flesh-colored, very large, and very hard fist.  
  
KA-WAP   
  
-------------------------------  
  
Neptune watched as the largest Protector that they had encountered so far fall to earth with a definite 'splat'. The sound reminded her of a watermelon falling off the table, just greatly amplified. The lump bounded away and gathered itself and stood, facing Sailor Sun.  
  
Sun blurred.  
  
She was stunned at the speed Sun tore into the giant Protector. One second she was standing a good twenty feet away, the next she was slicing the Protector to bits with her sword. She covered her ears to shield them from the sharp cracking sounds that Sun's sword were making as she made mince meat out of the Protector.  
  
Or so she thought.   
  
Neptune heard Sun say, "That should be -" before she disappeared with a large smacking sound of flesh meeting flesh, and the Protector stood with arm extended.   
  
Sailor Sun got batted away like an unwanted child's toy.  
  
It was at that moment that she knew they were in trouble.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
The world was tumbling uncontrollably. The ground and the sky quickly alternating in a wild mixture of images. Something inside told her that it wasn't the world that was upset, but it was herself that was cart-wheeling unchecked through the air. Working on instinct alone, Sun tried to stabilize her unexpected and uncontrolled flight with her warp bubbles, but was interrupted by striking something hard. Her tumbling slowed as she again struck several somethings that were equally as hard. When the world settled, she discovered herself embedded in a wall among the rubble that was once was a display of alarm clocks.   
  
Shaking her head free of the cobwebs from her landing, she questioned mentally, "_What in the hell happened?"_  
  
Checking herself for injuries before moving, Sun discovered that she was stiff, sore and very shaken. She was in shock by being taken completely by surprise like that, but otherwise unharmed. With the exception of her pride.   
  
Gathering herself together, she pulled herself free from the imprisoning wall. She slumped to the floor as her legs folded under her. Turning to look at the impression her body made on the wall, she noted that there was a steel support beam that prevented her from going all the way through the building. Looking around the scene more, Sun found that her flight had been apparently slowed by at least two other support beams, the flooring and the hand rails of a stairwell she had passed through.  
  
"_Thank goodness for building codes,"_ Sun thought as shakily got to her feet.   
  
Then she realized that she got decked. Big time.  
  
_"Idiot! I'm getting too damn cocky," _she berated herself. Pausing to think as she continued her self evaluation, _"I've been too damn cocky since the beginning of this whole mess."  
  
_She brushed the remains of a "Hello Kitty" alarm clock off her shoulder, _"I was careless around the wormhole and now with this Protector. I assuming that since I have all this damn power that I'm untouchable. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" _She sighed while working a kink out of her back, _"I gotta stop being so stupid or I'm going to lose this fight."_  
  
She backtracked through the path that she made in the building. Sun was surprised to find herself looking out the back of a high-rise store on the fourth floor. Across the alley below, was another store that she evidently passed through before almost going completely through the store she came to rest in. Somewhere in the distant, the muffled sound of fighting was heard.  
  
_"Must pack a mean wallop,"_ Sun surmised. She considered flying, but decided to sprint back instead to work her newly acquired stiffness out of her muscles from her unexpected trip. Leaping from the hole in the side of the building and landing softly in the alleyway below, she turned in the direction of the part.  
  
Dashing through the alleyway toward the park, Sun used the opportunity to try to come up with a game plan. Checking her time field, she found it to be back to the fluctuating condition that it was after the encounter with the wormhole. The protector had the same effected on her time field as the wormhole did. Could there be a connection?  
  
_"I'm a bigger idiot than I thought, always depending on one thing," _she swore to herself. _"What the hell's wrong with me? Did I forget how to fight?"_  
  
She continued on her way through the alley, leaping over a ash can, _"No, that's not it. I just got too damn arrogant, too damn careless and too damn stupid."  
_  
Approaching the mouth of the alley, she spied the low wall of the park across the wide avenue. _"There's the park, one leap and I'll be back in the fight again."  
_  
As she prepared for a running leap that would carry her over the wall and into the park, she heard the sounds of shouting and the popping noises of automatic weapons. She slowed for a moment as she neared the entrance of the alley, trying to determine which direction the automatic fire was coming from. This was proving difficult, for the gunfire was echoing off the surrounding walls. Hoping to assist any JDF forces that may need immediate aid before returning to her own fight, she slowed down to a trot.   
  
At the mouth of the alley, Sun looked right and saw nothing. Looking left, she was suddenly blinded by a flash of light and deafened by a large 'boom' that overshadowed all the other sounds of battle. The very ground reverberated and shook from what must have been an impact of a high energy weapon. Her armor field automatically was fed more power.  
  
She instinctively raised her arms across her face to protect it from something that flew into her field of vision, barely seen through the intense light of the explosion. Struck by flying debris, she felt the hard and soft objects strike her armor fields, some leaving a wet sensation behind.   
  
Then there was silence.  
  
Lowering her arms, she blinked her eyes clear and looked about her to see what had transpired. There was a large crater about ten feet across about thirty feet from the entrance of the alleyway, the pavement around was scorched and burnt. She took a step forward to continue on her way to the park and almost tripped over a blackened lump of something near her feet that she couldn't identify. Looking closer, she realized that it was part of one of the Protectors.  
  
_"It didn't turn to goo. Maybe I can find something useful, if not I can bring it to Mercury and see what she can find out,"_ Sun thought to herself as she bent to get a closer look at the object. Her head snapped up as the sounds of gunfire continued to echo throughout the street from somewhere. The gunfire moved away from where she was at, so she turned her attention back to the object at her feet.  
  
Sun knelt closer to the remains of the Protector to examine it, she carefully scanned it with her senses in the hope of finding out something useful about her adversary. She was disappointed when her senses couldn't reveal anything helpful. Reaching down to turn it over, she froze in mid-movement as she noticed for the first time a red liquid that coated her right arm and flowed off her armored layer.  
  
_"What is this?" _she thought as she looked dumbly at the dripping red liquid.  
  
Red?  
  
Blood?  
  
_"I don't remember anything getting through my armor shield,"_ Sun thought as she stood up and examined herself closer. Upon finding no injury, she shrugged her shoulders and knelt again to examine the object of her interest.  
  
Grabbing hold of the blackened lump, she began to roll it over and stopped as red liquid began to pour out from underneath, soaking the pavement. An awful odor rose of the lump and assaulted her nostrils, like the smell of burnt pork. This smell was different somehow, stronger and nastier.  
  
Sun returned to rolling the mass over, _"Man, I'm glad most of them turn to goo instead of this smelly lump of...," _and was greeted by the tattered remains of a green uniform with a name stitched on one side and on the other side was badly torn revealing...  
  
"Oh god!" she choked out as she released the lump allowing it to roll back into on its original side. Backing away from the body or what was left of it, she covered her mouth and forcibly pushed down the bile that was threatening to come up. She didn't stop backing away until she made contact with the wall behind her.   
  
She stood there, frozen in horror and realized that it was parts and pieces of a human being that were surrounding her.  
  
This was the first time she remembered seeing another human being dead.  
  
Her mind recoiled at the scene.  
  
_"No! This can't be! No one is suppose to die,"_ her mind screamed.   
  
Breathing heavily, leaning against the wall and trying to keep what little contents of her stomach from coming up, she couldn't tear her eyes away from the grizzly remains before her. Her mind raced, getting nowhere fast. This only reinforce her earlier self evaluation. Her confidence shattered, harder than it did when she was disowned and living on the streets.  
  
_"It's my fault. If I wasn't so cocky," _her mind screamed at her. _"If I wasn't trying to act so damn... so damn... arrogant and listened to what my senses were telling me, none of this would've happened."  
_  
She sagged down the wall, coming to rest on her haunches. Going through all the attacks she could remember, she realized that everything, with the exception of her much toned down Solar Flare, was just too powerful to use. And even that she was hesitant to use. Burying her face in her hands, she lamented, _"I'm worthless. Every attack I know is too powerful to use. I'm useless."  
  
_Thinking about that, and remembered the words of Sailor Pluto when she eavesdropped on the Scout meeting early in the week,  
  
"... a super weapon, an ultimate weapon of mass destruction. So powerful is Sailor Sun that using her in such close quarters, like a planet or a moon, would have been just as dangerous as the invaders."  
  
Ranma thought, _"She's right. Every attack I know as Sailor Sun is... huge, devastating. Ridiculously so. "_ She sat there lost in self-doubt, _"I'm too damn strong. No wonder they didn't use me in the war with the Negaverse - there would have been nothing left. I'm worse than useless."_  
  
Another part asserted itself, _You are a soldier, a weapon of her majesty. Fighting, death and dying are a part of that."  
  
_Sun looked up from where her face was buried in her hands and blink-blinked. She felt a cold focus growing in her.  
  
_You are a soldier, you must fight. _A voice from deep inside insisted._  
  
"But I never..."   
  
You have to_. _There is no one else who can deal with this new threat._  
  
_"I didn't want this..."   
  
Sometimes there is no choice. Sometimes the choices are made for you. You are a soldier._  
  
_"I wasn't asked..."   
  
You are a soldier. You are a weapon_. _You want everyone to end up like him?  
  
".... no..."  
  
Then get moving.   
  
"Yes..."_  
  
Sun collected herself and pushed the horror see had just witnessed to the back of her mind where it wouldn't get in the way. She would deal with that later, after this was over with. She had to push it back, she couldn't think about it. Too much was at stake.   
  
She rose from where she was crouched against the wall of the alley and tried not to think to much as she carefully stepped over the remains of the JDF soldier. A soldier who died defending this world from an invasion from a mistake by a long dead kingdom. She cleared the alley and looked about the street, more parts of the body (or was it bodies?) were strewn everywhere.   
  
Gunfire was heard in the distance somewhere as the fighting moved away from the area she was at.  
  
She stepped out of the alley, a soft padding sound was heard to her left. Turning toward the sound, her self resolve was almost shattered as a head of a nameless man rolled in her direction, like a ball.   
  
She stood in shock, before leaning against another wall, trying desperately to get through this. She closed her eyes, with her head down and tried to refocused on what needed to be done. The image of the head rolling across the ground kept stopping her.  
  
_"I gotta keep moving, I can't let this stop me... I gotta focus and get back in the fight," _she repeated as she opened her eyes.  
  
_"I can't deal with this now, I'll have to deal with it later, I have to!"_ Sun's thoughts screamed bitterly. She pushed the unpleasantness around her down into the depths of her mind, where she hoped in vain that it would never haunt her.  
  
She was a solider, she strived to remember that...  
  
... and she had a job to do.  
  
A little paler, but a little more focused, she concentrated on the job at hand. Without further delay, she leapt back into the park.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
The ride to the aid station was short.  
  
It wasn't very comfortable and not because of the crowded conditions of the bus. It was because Fumiki couldn't find Aki. She kept worrying, thinking in circular thoughts, _"What could've happened? He was right there next to me? I should have stayed and looked for him..."_  
  
She had found the old lady that was sitting next to them but she was of little help, for she hadn't known anything either. She still stayed and looked after Fumiki, making sure she didn't get too distraught. It was helping, a bit.  
  
"Thank you," Fumiki managed after they were on the road a while.  
  
"You're welcome. I'm sorry, I never introduced myself. I'm Mrs. Takahashi," the old lady said with a thin smile, trying to comfort Fumiki.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
Things were going pretty badly. Jupiter tried her Thunder Crash and it seemed to stun the thing for all of five minutes. It stood there and wavered as if trying to decide to fall apart or not. Then suddenly it smacked Jupiter with some kind of energy attack of its own. Jupiter wasn't out, but it was clear she was hurting as she limped ran back to help.  
  
She was lucky it was a glancing blow.  
  
Mercury used her Bubbles Blast, hoping to confuse the Protector. Her efforts were ignored by the Protector as it once again launched another bolt of energy that Mercury evaded. Knowing she had little in the way of offensive capabilities, she withdrew to a safe distance. Once there, she brought out her computer and started studying the new threat.  
  
The next up was Moon. Quickly powering up her tiara, she let it fly. The Protector was hit dead center. As the tiara sliced through it the things body, parts of it exploded into a slugde like the rest before. It did not fall, it stood there for a moment, then fired off another of its powerful attacks that Moon dodged. Barely.  
  
It was at that time Sun returned from where ever she had been knocked and re-entered the fight.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
"Afternoon maam. Did ja hear what's happening in Juuban?" the diverly man asked, making small talk while stacking boxes of vegetables by the rear door.  
  
"No, what?" the woman answered, disinterested.  
  
"It's all over the news. There's some kind of monster invasion going on. The military is involved and so are the Sailor Scouts," he answered, hefting the last box and stacking it on top of the others.  
  
"Sailor Scouts?"  
  
"Yes, supposedly they are a bunch of magic girls that go around and fight monsters. I didn't believe in such nonsense until I saw them on the news. This is the first time they have been openly fighting and the first time they've been on TV," he said, handing the receipt for the woman to sign.  
  
"Hmmmmm. Magic girls? This may bear looking into," the old woman replied while sighing.  
  
"Well, that's all your order. See you in three days," the driver said, tipping his hat and turning to leave.  
  
The old woman stood after the driver had left and pondered. Returning inside she shut the door and made her way to the TV sitting on one of the edges of the counter. Reaching up with a surprisingly steady hand for one her age, she turned the knob until it softly clicked.  
  
What came on the screen amazed her.  
  
With gleaming interest, Cologne watched the drama unfold before her.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
When she arrived back, the rest of the scouts were running interference against the large Protector that was moving in the direction of the wormhole and Saturn. The Scouts dodged and launched magical attacks that were slowing it, but none stopped it. Sun watched as Mars Flame Sniper connected with the right arm between the elbow and the wrist. It should have seared off the arm of the Protector. Instead, the thing only jerked the arm back as it passed through, leaving it whole and unscathed.  
  
Sun thought about trying to go back into compressed time, but discarded that idea. Something about this Protector was interfering with her time field the same way the wormhole did. Not only that, her time field interfered with something in this Protector. She wasn't going to make any mistakes like she did earlier.  
  
_"I'm need to study the situation, no more of going off half cocked,"_ Sun reminded herself as another thought crept into her consciousness, _"that's how people die."_  
  
This time, she watched closely to see how this Protector was pulling this off. Taking her Solar Sword, Sun went to sever the thing's right leg above where the knee should be. Sun watched in fascination as the Protector's leg seem to flow around the sharp edge of the sword. The skin of the Protector opened at the leading edge only to reseal itself just behind where the cut was being made.   
  
_"Hmmmm. That's interesting,"_ Sun thought just before she discovered how fast it could be. The Protector's arm swung around as it turned and lunged at Sun, who was prepared for any counter but barely evaded it.  
  
_"How can it move so fast? I don't detect any time disturbances from it,"_ Sun thought dodging frantically, putting some distance between her and it. She was nearly caught off guard as it lunged at her again with incredible speed, she evaded it by dropping into a half crouch and side stepping. The momentum of its lunge carried it away from Sun. _"Then again, I'm pretty fast too, without tampering with time."  
_  
As the Protector passed and the distance grew between them, Sun noticed that it seemed shifted slightly in reality.  
  
She extended her senses to study the Protector on a level that no one else could. Sun truly examined her opponent for the first time to see how the Protector was pulling it off. The multiple warpages in space were really small wormholes that it projected parts of itself through, the whole thing was linked on a quantum level. It was really just a small part of the whole that was being projected into this space.  
  
Pretty damn clever.  
  
When Sun fought and damaged what was physically in this space, it was replaced immediately by other parts of itself from another space. It was like fighting an endless supply of fingers from a giant you couldn't see. The fact that each little wormhole was like a separate entity that was held together by one collective mind, made it like fighting a colony creature instead of one individual. Sun realized that the power requirements for this must be enormous.  
  
You guys stay here and help Saturn, I'll deal with this thing! She yelled to the other Scouts, I need plenty of room to handle it, so keep everyone away.  
  
Dodging and baiting the Protector, Sun soon was able to maneuver her oversized opponent into an open area away from everyone else. Looking around between dodges and checking with her senses of space, all was clear. Sun was pleased for once in finding that her and the Protector had managed to find themselves alone.   
  
_"I wonder how well it would resist a Solar Flare?" _Sun thought, still leading the Protector deeper into the park.   
  
She powered for her attack.  
  
"Okay ugly, let's see you handle this," she said as a white-hot ball of plasma flew from her cupped hands.  
  
The ball of plasma traversed the distance between Sailor Sun and the Protector almost instantly. The ground beneath the traveling ball of energy was either fused or vaporized in its wake of the much toned down Solar Flare. With a blinding flash and a roar of super-heated air, the Protector was engulfed by the powerful ball and was incinerated. Sun yelped out a cry of victory as the energy of her attack dissipated. The Protector was gone along with a fan shaped area of the park, about one hundred seventy feet long by one hundred feet at the widest. This area was reduced to a smoking, mass interspersed with melted and fused earth. The surrounding area outside the immediate cone of destruction was hissing and smoldering from the side effect of the heat. Of the Protector, there was nothing left.  
  
Almost nothing.   
  
Sun stopped her victory jig and mentally slapping herself for being so lax. _"Idiot! That's how you got nailed the first time," _she sternly thought to herself. Sun sighed and began moving closer to examine the spot where the Protector was standing. She could make out something glowing, being obscured here and there by the smoking ruins of the park.  
  
_"Residual energy maybe?"_ Sun though, trying to rationalize what she was seeing. She almost thought of ignoring it, but _"No, I got careless before, and that costs lives." _The image of the burnt and broken torso with part of a head filled her mind, she shook it off in revulsion_.   
  
"I gotta be sure," _she thought as the gruesome image was once again pushed into the recesses of her mind, for later.  
  
Approaching the area of disturbance, Sun cautiously made her way over. There was definitely something there, like glowing blue points of light. The way the lights were dancing about, they reminded her of lighting bugs at dusk in the summer. There didn't seem to be a pattern as she watched the lights flitter about. She got closer, ignoring the searing hot ground for she was well protected from such mundane threats. The lights were now beginning to move with a purpose, forming up along lines that were radiating outward from a larger point of blue light.  
  
Suddenly the huge Protector was there again - with a popping sound - standing in the middled of seared earth. Not quite all of it Sun noticed, the majority of it was there but the extremities were still forming, oozing out from the points of blue light. As the pieces were oozing out, it looked as if the different parts were growing together and merging.   
  
"Oh, crap," said an exasperated Sun.  
  
Sailor Sun attacked again, this time with her fists out of frustration. She out flanked the quickly reforming Protector and attacked from the rear. Coming down hard the Protectors left side, that part seem to burst apart in a gory display of sludge that covered part of Sun's costume. She was real glad that her armored field sloughed it off, otherwise it would have been too gross.  
  
_"There, let's see what that did."_ she thought with satisfaction while quickly backing away, putting some distance between her and any counter attack. _"That should have done somethi-"_   
  
The Protector slammed its fist into Sailor Sun, sending her flying in a straight line. Sun hit the low wall bordering the park, which arrested her flight for brief moment before succumbing, falling into rumble. Flipping head over heels she crashed into something even harder and came to rest.  
  
_"-ing," _she finished her thought, while shaking her head clear of the little birdies that were suddenly flying around her head. Sun sat up and looked at what she landed up against.  
  
A tank. A very large tank. Looking up, she noticed that she had actually dented the heavy armor that protected the top part of the treads. A mechanical sound was heard as she saw a cylindrical object moving against the blue sky. The barrel stopped directly above her. The gun of the tank aimed in the direction of the park and she followed the line of travel and saw the Protector standing across the wide avenue among the rumble of the wall she was just knocked through.  
  
Sailor Sun almost crapped in her pants when the gun fired.  
  
The projectile struck the Protector square in the chest and detonated. When the smoke cleared, it was standing where it was, with a hole in the center that was closing up and filling. It raised a glowing arm, aimed at the tank and Sailor Sun.  
  
"Oh shit," was Sun only comment as she leapt to her feet. She quickly poured power and expanded her armor field to cover both herself and the tank.  
  
The Protector fired.  
  
The ball of fire was impressive as it struck Sun's armor field. It looked like a waves of light crashing against the rocks of Sun's jagged armor. The glow of the attack seem to hang in the air, sending tendrils of energy that tried to work their way through the field that was protecting her and the tank. Some did reach her, painfully.  
  
She gritted her teeth and bore it.  
  
_"It's finding away around my armor. It's finding a way to... counter the frequency?" _was the answer out of nowhere.  
  
The attack passed, she searched her mind for a counter, and was distracted for a moment by the sound of someone screaming for a medic. Looking around she realized she protected herself, the tank and some of the surrounding area. But not much more. There were men around and behind the tank, many were protected by her field. Those that were partially were wounded and on the ground, others that weren't...  
  
... were burnt and broken,...  
  
... Sun didn't want to think about that.  
  
Not now. Later.  
  
_"There's gotta be a way for me to get an edge. I can't use my compressed time around that thing... wait!"_ she mentally slapped herself.  
  
She concentrated on the space in front of the Protector, who arm was glowing, gearing up for another shot - and folded space.  
  
The Protector was the one caught off guard this time by this move. Fighting the slight dizziness after folding space, Sun slammed into the Protector carrying them both back into the park. She struck it over and over again, some hits flowed harmlessly around the mass, the majority were connecting, turning what she hit with into sludge. She had the Protector on its back, with her atop it, pounding it into the ground. A glowing fist filled her vision.  
  
"Oh sh-" she didn't complete her statement as her world went black.  
  
Coming to only seconds later with the sensation of air rushing by her, Sun opened her eyes to find herself flying straight up with a very sore jaw. Instinctively using her warp bubbles, she halted her ascent and hovered in the air. Looking below her at the ground, maybe a good three hundred feet down, the Protector was busy reforming the destroyed parts of its body.  
  
_"How in the hell do I stop something like that?"_ Sun thought as she felt sweat flow down the side of her face, before rephrasing her thought _"How in the hell do I stop this thing?_  
  
Sun was beyond frustrated. She had been going all out, or as all out as she could go without destroying a wide area, if not all of Japan, and still this thing kept coming. She wondered how someone like her with the power to lay waste the Solar System, could not have the right kind of power to defeat this thing. She tried slashing, blasting, burning and generally beating the hell out of the Protector but it kept renewing itself and getting some good jabs in between to boot. She knew it was only going to be a matter of time before she'd make a mistake.  
  
_"Damn it!" _she thought, _"I'm so out of practice! All I've done for months is practice moves and katas! Play with my powers as if they were new toys! I haven't sparred with anyone in lord knows how long and now I'm paying the price."  
_  
Sweat tickled the side of her face as she watched the Protector finish reforming itself and begin to move in the direction of the wormhole.  
  
_"I gotta think, I gotta think,"_ she repeated in her mind.  
  
The flow of sweat t beaded at her chin. _"There's gotta be a way, there's just gotta be a way to beat this thing," _she thought, wiping the sweat from her face with the back of her hand. Something didn't feel right. She looked at the back of her hand.   
  
Not sweat, blood.   
  
Her blood.   
  
That thing had managed to crash through some of her armor fields enough to draw blood.  
  
Red.  
  
Blood.  
  
An image of a man's severed head filled her mind.  
  
Sun shook her head with revulsion trying to shake the image and once again pushed it to the back of her consciousness.  
  
For later.  
  
_"No! I can't think about that! I gotta concentrate on what I'm doing,"_ she ranted to herself. Taking a deep breath, trying to calm herself - it failed. She felt the frustration of her ineffectiveness fill her with anger, making her feel...   
  
_Worthless! You are worthless..._  
  
_"I am not worthless! More people are going to die unless I stop this thing,"_ the anger grew.  
  
_You are dishonorable...  
_  
_"I am not! I will stop that thing, if it's the last thing I do,"_ anger couple with frustration.  
  
_You are weak...  
_  
_"I will not see anymore deaths from these Protectors..." _rational thought left as rage filled her, _"... I will destroy them all."_  
  
_You are a coward...  
_  
Sailor Sun saw red. _"I am..."_  
  
This time it wasn't blood. _"... not..."_  
  
The anger built up and Sun closed her eyes embracing more of the magic within, notching her power up to another level. The effect was immediate. Sailor Sun's skin took on an "orange peal" look as it glowed and moved with on its own with power. Flames of energy then burst from her being here and there only to encounter the warp fields that drew them back to herself again. At the same time a corona of power exploded from her body making the warp bubbles almost visible to the naked eye. Sailor Sun looked just like the living representation of her namesake. She opened her eyes to reveal two mini blue stars shining, set in her beautiful face. The feathered wings made of flame that sprung from her back completed the picture.  
  
_"... a coward!"_  
  
Super Sailor Sun hung in mid air above the park.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
Fumiki walked wearily from the medical tent at the aid station where she was examined for any injuries from her earlier ordeal, She asked around for anyone who could have seen Aki, but no one knew anything.  
  
_"Maybe he's looking for me? I should head home, just in case,"_ she thought.  
  
She attempted to leave, but was directed to stay by a firm looking soldier.   
  
"Please Miss, you don't need to be going back to that mess, besides you won't be able to get near there before being turned back," he said gently, yet with a determined undertone.  
  
Fumiki sighed and resigned herself to waiting. Suddenly, she was distracted by a bright light in the sky over in the direction of Juuban.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
Cologne watched the battle with great interest, puzzling something in her mind. After a moment she hopped over to the TV and examined the images closely. Her eyes narrowed before she backed away from the screen. Pogoing away on her staff, she returned to the kitchen with a thick volume. Quickly, but carefully leafing through the book, she stopped here and there, tracing a thin withered finger down the passages.  
  
"So they may exist!" she said excitedly.  
  
"Who, great grandmother?" Shampoo asked, while looking between the events on the TV and Cologne.  
  
"There is an ancient legend that a group of woman warriors, chosen among the best and brightest of the Amazons, were blessed with powers greater than any mortal by the goddess. They were trained to fight demons and any great evil that may threaten this world. I believe that these are either them or their descendants."  
  
"How can you be sure, elder?"  
  
"I am not. Let us watch and see. If they are what I hope, if they are the warriors of legend, then they will reveal themselves by the way they fight."  
  
Two sets of eyes turned and watched the events unfold on the screen.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
Sailor Sun's wings spread out, stretched to their full length as she drew power from the fabric of space/time around her. She was very, very pissed. One thing was on her mind: the destruction of the Protector that threatened the very existence of all she held dear. She narrowed the twin blue light that were her eyes and mentally went through a menu of different attacks. There were many listed mentally and she chose one that would be guaranteed to end this fight. She prepared her attack.  
  
"This will kill that bastard," Sun thought aloud as she gathered the energies between her hands. Her wings flared as more power was drawn through through them and into Sun's body. She could feel the fabric of space and the power it contains concentrate within her while being focused by her will alone.  
  
Sailor Sun's name was misdirection.She didn't get her power from the Sun, but from something far greater.  
  
In the space between her cupped hands, a marble-sized brilliant concentration of light formed and swirled. Space warped between her slender fingers as a bubble formed there, she moved the marble slightly out of phase with this space and concentrated more matter and energy there.  
  
"Let's see how that bastard handles a couple of solar masses of concentrated energy, the son of a bitch," Sun snarled as blood from the cut flowed past her mouth. The pinprick of energy in her hands glowed brighter and grew to tennis ball size.  
  
Alarm bells rang in the back of her head.  
  
And for once Sun heeded the alarms in her mind.  
  
_"Wait. A couple solar masses?"_ a rational part of her mind asserted, _"Two solar masses?" _it then screamed.  
  
Sun's eyes blink-blinked.  
  
The energy that had been gathering between her hands was banished from where it came from safely.  
  
_"What in the hell was I thinking?"_ she berated herself. _"First I go off half cocked, thinking that nothing could touch me which probably resulted in... many deaths,"_ the grisly images filled her mind again and she shuddered at the memory, _"and now I'm going to kill one... one thing with an attack that would vaporize the planet. What in the hell is wrong with me?"_  
  
Sun hung in mid-air, clearing her mind and focusing it, _"I'm getting too emotional, I'm reacting instead of acting."  
  
_More unpleasant images tried to invade her mind, she shook these off._  
  
_Sun looked down at her opponent as it made its way in the direction of the wormhole and Saturn, _"At least it can't fly or it would have taken advantage of... knocking me out."_ Turning her mind over to the problem of beating this thing she thought,_ " I have to figure out a way to stop it from renewing itself through the wormholes."  
  
_Seeing the Protector pick up the pace and approach the wormhole, she thought_ "But, first I have to keep it away from Saturn."  
_  
When Sun made it back down, the giant Protector was almost on top of Saturn in spite of the amount of pounding it was receiving from the other scouts. Saturn for her part was still maintaining the Silence Wall even though she was clearly distressed. Soaring from the sky with outstretched wings, Sun gathered the Protector in her arms and flew away. The Protector squirmed and twisted in her grasp then landed another good blow to her ribcage forcing Sun to drop it on the far side of the park.   
  
The blow was hard and it hurt even though Sun's armored field was holding up. Somehow her enemy had found a way or at least a partial way around her protective field. Sun was calmer than she was when she first got hit in the jaw and decided not to rush into battle now that she had taken the pressure off those guarding the wormhole.  
  
She backed off a bit and began sizing her enemy up, it stood there and seemed to be doing the same. Sun moved her wings behind her as they fluttered in the gentle breeze. For some weird reason she took the time to take in how lovely the color of the turning trees were, a strange thing to be thinking in the middle of a life and death struggle. Maybe it was because she wanted to grasp something in her mind that was beautiful in an ugly situation.  
  
Or maybe she wanted to remember something of beauty, to push what she had seen earlier further into the back of her mind.  
  
Sun decided on a course of action, she was going to feel the enemy out. She was going to try to find out what it can and couldn't do, for all she knew trying to kill it with a Solar Flare may have made it more powerful.   
  
_"Gotta keep it here, I gotta keep it busy,"_ she thought as she suddenly charged and moved in chestnut speed toward her foe.  
  
The Protector just stood there as Sun attacked. It did not dodge, or seem to need to. Sun noticed as she closed in for her attack that instead of dodging or taking any sort of evasive maneuvers, the Protector just shifted in reality a bit. Sun's punches were literally flowing around the mass that made up her opponent and really didn't seem to connect in spite of the fact that there was no way for her to miss. The Protector on the other hand had no problems getting to her as a few glancing blows proved to Sun. She leapt away, analyzing the situation.   
  
_"It's adapting to my moves, countering them. No! It's adapting to my use of space," _she realized.  
  
Thinking of a course of action, she continued to ponder.  
  
_"Okay, psychical strength is useless," _she thought. _"Even if I connected, it would just reform itself."   
_  
Dodging a ball of plasma launched by her opponent, "_I can't cut it's power off - it is out of reach."_  
  
Twist, parry, dodge.  
  
All this added up to was the fact Ranma couldn't defeat this thing with brute force. That meant that she had to, God help her, outsmart it.  
  
Thinking back to what Dr. Ikari said earlier, about mass and wormholes. Maybe... gravity?  
  
Her eyes narrowed as she came up with a plan of attack. To be to be sure nothing else was affected, she would use her fields and get close.  
  
Once again leaping into battle, Sun used her wings to suddenly change direction and come in from the thing's right flank. Splitting her warp bubble that controlled gravity in two, she extended the inner one to encompass the Protector and herself, the outer one as a barrier between them and the outside world. She then fed power to the inner one.  
  
A circular area around Sun compressed and fused under its own weight.  
  
The Protector must have sensed something because it tried to leap out of harms way and nearly succeeded. It was a little too late as its right arm suddenly collapsed into itself between the elbow and the shoulder. It gave out what can only be described as a high pitched screech of pain, weird since it had no mouth. The Protector's arm imploded inward into tiny blue motes of light. The tiny wormholes wavered and then collapsed upon themselves. The protector's warp field fluctuated and died at that part of its body as well.   
  
There would be no reopening of those wormholes.  
  
Sun would have given a victory cry it it wasn't for the fact that she was eating dirt at the time. The Protector managed to power up its other arm, build up some kind of energy in its hand and release it right into Sun's left side. As Sun picked herself off the ground, her whole left side felt as if it were on fire. Gently feeling that side of her body with her uninjured hand, she pressed carefully. Sun ground her teeth in pain as she discovered to her dismay that at least one maybe two ribs were broken.  
  
Something was automatically shifting magic or power or something she didn't have a term for to the injured area, stabilizing it and easing the pain. She willed more of this force into the injury to try to stabilize the injury faster and speed up recovery. The Protector had other things in mind, it stood there and wavered around a bit.  
  
Sun watched, holding her side, through the easing pain as senses told her that he Protector was redirecting other wormholes from other parts of its being to replace the missing arm. It took quite a few because with each redirection the overall size of the Protector shrank.  
  
_"Must be because the arm and hand has so many joints,"_ Sun thought to herself offhandedly, remembering something That Dr. Tofu mentioned when he once mended her busted hand.  
  
As if sensing Sun's condition it went on the offensive...  
  
-------------------------------  
  
Sailor Moon worriedly moved toward Saturn who was still maintaining the Silence Wall. On the other side there were many of the invading force pressing up against it. Some of the Protectors were using some kind of energy beam against part of the wall, weakening it at the point of contact.  
  
"How are you holding up?" Moon asked carefully so as not to break the young Senshi's concentration.  
  
Saturn sighed heavily and wearily shook her sweaty head, "I'm getting tired."  
  
Moon thought for a second before looking around, "Mars, Mercury. Go find Sun. Tell her to come right away."  
  
The two Senshi nodded and took off in opposite directions, looking for where Sun was battling the Protector.  
  
"The rest of you get ready, we might have to hold off the Protectors until Sun gets here," she said the the rest of the group, while thinking, _"and where in the heck is Pluto?"_  
  
-------------------------------  
  
It became clearer to Ranma that this was not a fight she could win by brawn but by brains.  
  
Trying to use her gravity field to attack was proving frustrating as the Protector was extra cautious when grappling with her. It seemed like every time she tried to send any power to that field the Protector would back off suddenly. It was not falling for the same trick twice. It did, however, give her some breathing room when she started to feel hard pressed.  
  
Ranma circled the giant Protector and began fighting it using nothing but her martial arts skill, hoping to distract it with her physical attacks enough to trap it within her gravity field. She jabbed hits and threw ki balls there while dodging and weaving around any of the punches or energy blasts the thing was throwing her way. She wasn't able to muster any confidence for any Moko Takabishas. After about ten minutes of this she broke away, putting a little distance between her and it.   
  
_"This is no good," _Ranma thought. Pressing her hand against her still tender left side, she winced, _"It's only a matter of time before it gets lucky. Every time I extend my gravity field, it senses it and backs off. My ki attacks just bounce off or just goes through it. But how I defeat it without destroying everything else in the process?"_  
  
Ranma dodged another energy blast sent her way. She was fast running out of ideals. _"Think dammit! Think! There's gotta be something I'm overlooking. I even if I hit it with a low power Solar Flare it would... it just keeps regenerating and anything more I do would destroy everything."_ Ranma thought a moment. _"That's it! I gotta change the rules."  
_  
A plan formed in her mind. It may not be a very good plan, but it was something that she was sure of that the Protector would never suspect. Twisting to avoid a strike, she spied Mercury rushing forward, stopping at the edge of the open area.  
  
"Sun! Saturn can't hold out much longer!" Mercury called over.  
  
"Stay back, I can handle this!" Sun yelled over to Mercury.  
  
With that Ranma renewed her attack, keeping the Protector at bay while baiting it at the same time. _"I won't even have to rely on this things ki, I can create my own hot and cold."_  
  
Channeling power to her right side of her body and generating heat that way, she then concentrated her "Soul of Ice" into her left. She led the Protector into a spiral pattern by continuing to bait it with jabs and letting it come within a hairs breadth of hitting her. She knew it was going to be trickier once the spiral got tighter, but she would have to deal with that the best she could.  
  
She only hoped that this thing didn't know any Amazon techniques.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
Mars rushed up to where Mercury was, "We've got to help her."  
  
"No. She asked us to stay out of it," Mercury replied, studying her computer screen.  
  
"Can you see what Sun's doing?" Mars asked while observing the battling shapes.  
  
"Nope. Not a thing," Mercury said, then added, "This is strange."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Sun is letting off different temperatures... I hope she's alright."  
  
"What does it mean?"  
  
"I'm not sure... but something subtle is happening. I just don't understand what." Mercury queried the computer, looking for answers.  
  
Silence.  
  
"How long can Saturn hold off the main force?" Mercury asked.  
  
"Not too much longer, she's getting tired. Moon sent us to tell Sun to hurry up," Mars said.  
  
"Tell her she's busy."  
  
There was a scream from the field, "Dragon's Heaven's-Blast!"  
  
"What in the heck is that?!" Mars exclaimed.  
  
In the middle of the park, the wind picked up the gentle breeze to a gale force in an instant. A whirlwind formed then exploded into a tornado with Sun standing at the center with an arm extended into the sky. Her clothes and skirt were blown around giving nose-bleed quality views of under Sun's skirt if any teenage boy were present. The Protector was blown off its feet and carried high into the sky.  
  
Sun summoned her sword.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
Finding Mrs. Takahashi, Fumiki sat beside her and fidgeted.  
  
"No luck?" the elderly woman asked softly.  
  
"No, and they won't let anyone leave. So I can't even look for him."  
  
"It wouldn't be a good idea to look for him anyway. When this is over with, let him look for you."  
  
"I just wish I knew if he's was alright."  
  
"And I'm sure he's thinking the same thing about you."  
  
Fumiki sat beside Takahashi, sighed and resumed her wait.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
"They must be Amazons!" Cologne declared.  
  
"What you mean?" Shampoo asked, confused.  
  
Cologne rolled her eyes, would Shampoo ever learn?  
  
"Watch and learn," she replied tiredly while motioning towards the screen with her cane. "That one there looks like she is setting up for a..."  
  
A image of a tornado filled the screen.  
  
"... I knew it!" Cologne declared. "An Amazon technique. Only Amazons would know how to do the Dragon's Heaven-Blast."  
  
Shampoo studied the screen, silently contemplating the events as she saw them.  
  
"Great-grandmother, could magic girl be husband? You taught him that to beat perverted master," Shampoo reasoned.  
  
Cologne shook her head slowly, "No, no, no child," she gently chided, "These warriors that were blessed by the goddess were true women of the Amazons. You husband may be many things, but a true woman he is not."  
  
"Yes great-grandmother, but could it be possible that..." Shampoo began.  
  
"No." Cologne said firmly, perhaps more than she wanted. "Only females were blessed with the power. Legend said only one male was blessed, but like all other males he wasn't much of a fighter. He was merely a consort of one of the blessed. Do you see a magic male fighting?"   
  
She paused to gather herself and to allow Shampoo time to answer.  
  
"No, elder."  
  
"That's because fighting is a woman's job. I am not saying that your husband is not a fighter, he is exceptional. But he is a male - and in a serious battle they would be lost."  
  
"Shampoo see..."   
  
"Good. Maybe one day we'll take a trip and seek them out." Cologne thought a bit, We would have to be very careful if we do. As one's blessed by the goddess, we must be careful as to not to offend them.  
  
Shampoo understand. What we do now?   
  
"First, we must investigate the reports of a male claiming to be Ranma Saotome. He roughly fits the description, if he is not Ranma then he can be persuaded to tell us what he knows. In any case your husband will eventually come back, after all we have something he wants."  
  
Both woman smiled at this.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
Sun's plan worked wonderfully. Caught off guard, the Protector was taken for a ride, high into the sky. She had to balance the power she put into her attack, she didn't want it to fall apart and regenerate before she had a chance to make her move. As the Protector rose higher and higher the high winds that supported it died. It hung in the air for an instant before falling to earth.  
  
With her sword in hand, Sun stood firm below it as the winds still buffeted the area surrounding her. She smiled as she saw that the Protector would fall right where she was standing. Taking her sword, Sun slashed at the ground between her legs. Dirt was kicked up and sent flying into the air. She looked up at the falling Protector, as she planted both feet firmly in the ground.  
  
Calculating carefully, Sun watched as the large Protector fall like a stone. She felt her timing had to be perfect. She knew that this thing would never give her a second chance.  
  
Watching it grow in her field of vision, Sun held her Sword at the ready and prepared for her move. She could tell by the way the thing was positioning itself it was readying an attack of it own, its good arm glowing with power. Glancing down to check her footing, she hoped this would work the way she figured. She sensed that the Protector was almost on top of her.  
  
"She'll be crushed!" Mars cried.  
  
"No. She's up to something," Mercury said calmly while looking at her computer.  
  
Putting power into her spatial field, Ranma picked a point about thirty feet from where she was. Knowing that the Protector was on top of her, Sun's body dipped suddenly toward the earth as she did the splits forcing the rent in space/time that she had made with her sword wider with her legs. She then moved out of the way by folding space.   
  
Forcing herself to overcome the dizziness, she quickly turned just in time to see the Protector connect its energy laden fist to her after image, which it passed through. The Protector appeared to fall through to the ground and disappear. Quickly regaining her feet, Sun compressed time successfully, for her field had stabilized during the fight, and rushed to the rift she had created. She dove after the Protector and taking her sword, she sealed rent in space/time behind her.  
  
Mercury and Mars were alone in the field, wondering what happened.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
A thin line glowed in the middle of nowhere and suddenly widened. A large ball of brilliant light shot through, followed by a large figure in the shape of a headless man. The Protector tried to stop its forward movement, but didn't have anything to push against. Its shape expanded in the unexpected vacuum, making it look more grotesque than before.  
  
Space is like that.  
  
The Protector was followed by a red-headed, teal dressed girl with wings made of feathered flame. She had no problems maneuvering, for here she was in her element.  
  
As the Protector tumbled helplessly, Sun sealed the rift behind her just in case she failed. It would make going back impossible for the Protector, unless it had more tricks up its sleeve than she figured. Moving to normal time, she turned her full attention the destruction of the enemy.  
  
The Protector continued unchecked as it flailed its limbs about, trying to affect its trajectory in some way. Unlike Sun, it was not designed to operate in space so it's efforts were in vain. Sun mentally went through her list of attacks and discarded all the mid and high end ones. She quickly settled on one she used back on the park, there would be no dodging or retreating from the Protector this time.  
  
Effortlessly, Sun caught up to the spinning figure of the Protector and split and expanded her gravity fields. The Protector sensing it's peril, flailed about even more, as desperately tried to get away. Sun would see to it that it would not succeed.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
"Where did they go?" Mars asked, slightly panicked.  
  
"I'm not sure," Mercury responded absent mindedly while studying the read out on her screen. "She opened some kind of gateway - it's very unclear about what happened."  
  
"She'll be back, won't she?"  
  
Mercury shook her head, "I don't know."  
  
-------------------------------  
  
With the outer field in place and the inner one encompassing the Protector, Sun fed her gravity field power. A lot of power.  
  
The Protectors that was inflated from the vacuum, suddenly collapsed in on itself. It took on the appearance of blue dots strung together by flesh-colored lines. The lines then faded into nothing leaving the blue dots behind. The blue lights, that were the mini wormholes, wavered and winked out one by one. The warp field that outlined the form the the Protector pulsed and died away to nothing.  
  
All that was left was a slightly larger wormhole that was at the heart of the Protector, it had defied her efforts to implode. As she poured more power into her field, she could sense the resistance in this one as it fought to stay in existence. Raising an eyebrow, Sun held her gravity field at the level it was at and concentrated on a spot between her fingers.  
  
_"Well if mass would naturally collapse a wormhole like the good doctor said, maybe a little push is all that's needed,"_ she thought to herself.  
  
A transparent bubble formed between her widely sprayed fingers, a intense pinprick of light formed there. She smiled as it reached five solar masses, _"Let's see if it can swallow this."  
  
_She launched the tiny ball of light into the small fist-size wormhole. It entered the wormhole and drew it into itself in a way that reminded her on water going down a drain. Without fanfare, the wormhole winked out of existence, taking the massive speck with it.  
  
Good thing she did that here instead of back home she thought. That little speck had enough mass that it would've taken the Earth with it. Dropping her gravity fields, Sun extended her senses and exhaled a sigh of relief as she found no trace her foe.  
  
Relaxing a bit from the fight, she turned and looked about her. Sun was treated to a grand view of the Milk Way as it filled her vision it all it's glory. Looking out upon the great spiral galaxy, she admired the long arms filled with stars and gas clouds. She traced the arms as they spiraled inward toward the bright oval center that was the heart of the entire galaxy.  
  
And the true heart of her power.  
  
She suddenly felt very small. Studying one star filled arm in particular, she instinctively picked out a tiny, insignificant dot that she knew was her home.   
  
She summoned her sword again and opened the way there.  
  
-------------------------------  
  
"What are we going to tell Moon?" Mars asked, exasperated at the whole situation.  
  
"I don't know. I don't know for sure what happened, I don't know for sure where she went, I don't know when she'll be back, I don't know. Okay?" Mercury said with equal exasperation in her voice.  
  
Mercury took a deep breath, calmed herself and said "Look, why don't you head back just in case your needed. I'll stay here just in case Sun comes back and tell her the situation. We'll join you there."  
  
Mars nodded and was about to take off when a slit opened in the air before them, and out stepped Sailor Sun.  
  
"Sun! What happened to that thing?" Mercury asked as she ran up to Sun.  
  
Sun collected herself from her excursion beyond the galaxy and said, "I couldn't figure out how to beat it here without... well, destroying everything. So I changed the rules."  
  
"Changed the rules?" Mercury questioned.  
  
"Er, yeah. You see, I couldn't beat it here without endangering everyone. Every Senshi attack I know is too damn powerful. So I took it about 100,000 light years from here, out in the middle of nowhere." Sun said while shrugging her shoulders. "It was all I could think of to do. I dealt with it there and came back."  
  
Before Mercury could congratulate Sun on her victory, Mars interrupted, "Moon said to hurry. Saturn is getting tired."   
  
-------------------------------  
  
The three scouts hurried over to where Saturn was still holding the Silence Wall over the mouth of the wormhole. She looked tired and on the verge of collapse from holding the wall against so many attacks from the other side.  
  
"When I give you the word, you drop the wall and hit the dirt. Got it?" Sun said firmly.  
  
"What are you- " Uranus started to say.  
  
"Everyone get behind me. Ready Saturn?"  
  
Saturn nodded.  
  
Sun spread her wings protectively in front of the Senshi as she extended her armor field over Saturn.  
  
"NOW!"  
  
Saturn dropped her Silence Wall and kissed the ground as Sun's body flared and exploded into flame. She didn't need to, but she cried out her attack, "Solar Flare!"  
  
A continuous column of light burst from her outstretched hands as the Solar Flare erupted and filled the wormhole with its energies. The shielding that Sun erected protected the other scouts around her as the ground around the wormhole smoked and burst into flames from just being near the power output of the attack. Even though the scouts behind Sun were shaded by her wings, the light penetrated through them, stinging their eyes. Saturn was not aware of this, as she had her head covered and her face planted firmly in the ground. The power Sun was putting into this attack would have been deadly for any normal person near it.  
  
The wormhole still was there when everyone eyes cleared from the intense light show. The ground and surrounding area was smoldering with the signs of Sun's power.  
  
"Did you get them all?" Mercury asked Sun as her and Moon stood behind her. Uranus and Neptune rushed over to Saturn, checking for any injuries. After confirming that Saturn wasn't hurt and didn't even feel the heat of Sun's attack as it passed over her, they rejoined the rest of the Senshi as they gathered before the wormhole. Sun turned to face Mercury and Moon as she shrugged her shoulders and drew her wings in.  
  
"No," Pluto said as she appeared out of nowhere. "There is a whole pocket universe filled with these things."  
  
"EEEEEK!Whyintheheckdoyoualwaysdothat?Can'tyougivemesomewarning?!Youscaredtheheckouttame!" Moon squeaked as she jumped behind Sun.   
  
"I wondered when you would show up," Sun said tartly to Pluto.  
  
"I was monitoring the effects of the fight. You succeeded in delaying them for about one hundred sixty years," Pluto said, ignoring the Sun's tone.  
  
"They're going to keep coming, aren't they?" Sun asked.  
  
Pluto nodded, "Yes and each time more aggressive and cunning than before."  
  
"Great, just great," Sun said exasperated.  
  
"What's the matter? We won, didn't we?" Venus asked.  
  
"No we didn't win. We just delayed them. They'll be back and according to Pluto in about a hundred years and fifty years," Sun replied.  
  
"One hundred and sixty," Pluto corrected.  
  
"Whatever," Sun shot tiredly as she rubbed her temples and looked up at Pluto, "You knew it would come to this, didn't you?"  
  
"Not for sure, but I did have hopes. I didn't foresee the Protector you fought. I did know that the First Enemy would have to be dealt with once and for all. It is either going to be us or them in the end, and I knew that only you were the only one who could finish this."  
  
Sun sighed and looked at the ground before looking up at Pluto again. "It'll get messy on the other end. Can you keep the wormhole open from this end so I can find my way back?" she finally asked.  
  
Pluto nodded.  
  
"Do it," Ranma said, in a slightly commanding voice.  
  
"Where are you... You're not thinking of going there are-" Moon began to ask.  
  
Sun had already folded her wings tighter and dove into the swirling blue wormhole and was gone.  
  
" ... "  
  
"Now that she is gone we must remove her as a threat by sealing the wormhole to prevent her from returning," Pluto said casually as she powered up for the "Dead Scream" against the equipment stabilizing the wormhole.  
  
Silence.  
  
"WHAT!?" the other eight Senshi screamed.  
  
=================== 


	16. Juuban part 14

Once again, I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine for pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.   
  
Also for hurting my head with math.  
  
Constructive criticism always welcome.  
  
Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
I don't own any of these characters or situations, this is done purely for fun. As always the spelling errors are mine, as are the grammar mistakes. I still have hopes that I am getting better by now and there are less of them.  
  
Juuban part 14  
  
--------------------  
  
The outraged Senshi zeroed in on Pluto.  
  
"What do you mean 'prevent her from returning'?" Sailor Moon asked.  
  
"Sailor Sun will eventually become a danger to the future of the Moon Kingdom. She must be dealt with and this is the best way."  
  
"How do you know this? I thought you said you couldn't see her future," Mars pointed out.  
  
"True. I cannot see her future or observe her, but it is only a matter of time before she becomes a threat. She must be eliminated."  
  
"No! I won't let you," Sailor Moon said.   
  
"She has done nothing wrong. I think the only reason is you're afraid of her because you made her life hell," Neptune interjected.  
  
"You don't understand. It will only be a matter of time before she will try to take control," Pluto said in a slightly raised voice. "And with her power, all of us combined would not be able to stop her."  
  
"You don't know that!" Mercury said, "So far you have been off on your... your... Why should we think you're right? You even admitted you can't see Sailor Sun's future, what makes you think she'll do what you predict?'  
  
"Because she is so powerful it will only be a matter of time before the power starts to control and corrupt her," Pluto paused for effect. "Have you heard the saying 'absolute power corrupts absolutely'?"   
  
Another pause to let the Senshi digest this.  
  
Pluto continued, "Well Sailor Sun is the picture of absolute power - how long do you think it will be before she starts abusing that power?"  
  
Neptune stepped forward, "You don't know that for sure! You're condemning one of us to death for something you think she might do."  
  
Pluto was not dissuaded, "This is for the best. When she destroys the Protectors' universe, being trapped there she will die. Now stand aside."  
  
"No," Sailor Moon stated firmly.  
  
------------------------  
  
Sailor Sun rode the wormhole back to its source. Using her senses, she detected that the other end was still open. Throughout her passage, she hoped that Sailor Pluto wouldn't try to trap her here. Just in case, Sun had been trying to mark her path through the dimensions so she could find her way back home. Sometimes the way wasn't as clear as it should have been, but that couldn't be helped. Sun did the best she could and she didn't want to get lost in the mutliverse.  
  
And there were so many universes to get lost in.  
  
If Pluto decided on betraying her, she had two choices: stay and face the end in this pocket universe or cut a path to another universe and hope that someday she would find her way to her universe. Ranma rode thought the dizzying array of lights until a brighter light, literally a light at the end of the tunnel, grew before her.  
  
The next thing she knew she was in the universe of the First Enemy.  
  
As Sun exited the wormhole opening, she saw the damage that she did to the other end with her Solar Flare. Part of what looked like a vast staging area was eliminated, the edges blacked and melted with the tremendous heat that her attack generated. Thick metal support beams were melted into slag and the roof, which looked to be a mile overhead, was partially collapsed.   
  
The staging area was an immense room. It looked to be about five miles from the opening of the wormhole to what was left of a wall. Overhead there were large racks hanging from the sagging ceiling, with row upon row of Protector troopers and Super Troopers hanging from them. In spite of large, fan shaped section before the wormhole had been eliminated by her Solar Flare, there seemed to be more than enough Protectors to threaten Earth for centuries to come.  
  
Looking about her she saw hundreds, maybe thousands, of the Protectors regrouping, for what she thought looked like a second attempt. They shouldn't be doing anything now. From what Pluto said, they would probably be studying their mistakes to try again later. Sun summoned her sword a cut a path high above the Protectors' planet. Floating in space, Sun noted the planet that was home to the Protectors. From space it looked somewhat like Mars, except in was Earth sized.   
  
Extending her senses she found herself in a truly pocket universe.   
  
The universe was roughly a sphere just about 160,000 light years across. _"More like a change pocket of a universe than a pocket universe," _she thought offhandedly.   
  
The relativity small size of the Protectors' universe possessed over 2400 suns with vast clouds of illuminated gas between them. Many of the systems that the universe had were double stars with very few planets in the "zone of life". The stars themselves ranged from elderly red giants to young protostars with still condensing gas surrounding them. The whole arrangement resembled a section of mini-elliptical galaxy, with dense concentration of stars on one side of the universe, thinning out while moving toward the other side. She carefully noted where the Protectors' universe was folded, created and cut off from its parent universe. It must have been a pretty inhospitable part of the galaxy.  
  
She scanned the whole of the pocket universe. The first time she did a scan after being reborn, just scanning the Earth was almost overwhelming. Now she was scanning a much larger volume. Sun stretched her senses even more, and the visible warping of space around her was testament to the amount of power she was putting into the scan.  
  
She could sense everything, she was everything. Information flooded her brain painfully for an instant before internal filters screened out the unimportant data. Narrowing and filtering her search for nothing but life forms, her scans detected none outside the Protectors. This made sense, since they were the only ones banished to this realm by the Moon Kingdom Techo-mages.   
  
Billions of people or hundreds of millions of bio-machines,  
  
The choice was simple to Sailor Sun.  
  
She detected a disturbance in space near her and realized that her presence had not gone entirely unnoticed. Soon the space surrounding her was filled with what could only be described as grey and blue water balloons. Balloons that were firing energy balls at her. Sun ignored them as energy was directed to her armored shield to shrug off the attacks. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the task at hand.  
  
The destruction of a universe.  
  
---------------------  
  
"Sailor Moon. Please. You don't know what you are risking," Pluto sounded almost pleading.  
  
"I don't know? All I do know you're planning to... murder one of us. You expect me just to say okay to that? How in the heck do you expect us to trust you from now on. Doing what you're doing?"  
  
Pluto exhaled, "You don't understand. Sailor Sun-"  
  
"Fought beside us through the whole thing," Jupiter said. "I don't believe she's a danger, and I don't think you really think so either."  
  
"Trust me," Pluto implored.  
  
"Trust you! Trust you!" Sailor Moon ranted, "How in the hel-, er - heck do you expect us to trust you now? How long would it be before you decide that one of us needs to be 'dealt' with? Who in the hell put you in charge?"  
  
"Queen Serenity," Pluto answered evenly.  
  
Moon's eyes narrowed, "Well, as her daughter that puts me in charge now doesn't it?"  
  
Pluto glared at Moon hoping to stare her down. The other scouts watched the power struggle.  
  
"If you think I'm going to let you condemn a fellow Scout to death because she might be a threat because you can't see her future, you're insane."  
  
"Please, you don't understand-", Pluto began, slightly terse.  
  
"I understand, you're afraid that Sun will abuse her powers," stated Moon.  
  
"Exactly. It is only a matter of time," replied Pluto evenly.  
  
"So anyone with great power is suspect - I'm I right?" Moon asked with narrowed eyes.  
  
Pluto stared at Moon, but didn't answer.  
  
"So what you're saying in that since Sailor Saturn can destroy a world, she must be suspect too," Moon said in a low voice while motioning toward said Senshi.  
  
The other scouts stared at Moon with bewildered looks.  
  
"No. You misunderstand..." Pluto began before beginning cut off by Moon.  
  
"NO. I understand alright. You said anyone with a lot of power will become corrupted by that power."  
  
"... yes..."  
  
"With that in mind, how do we know you haven't become corrupted by your power? The power to manipulate events and time can be considered a great power, can't it?" Moon ask in a dangerous way.  
  
Pluto looked lost for a second. Her own arguments were being used against her. She started, "I wouldn't do..."  
  
"You already have!" Moon said, cutting her off again. "You have interfered with... Sun's life driving her to the brink of madness and now that you are through using her, you want to kill her."  
  
Moon's eyes were beginning to glowing with anger, a rarity for her her.  
  
"If you try to seal this end of the wormhole before Sailor Sun returns, I swear... in the name of the Moon, you WILL BE PUNISHED," Moon angrily shouts the last.  
  
Pluto, shocked by Sailor Moon's outburst involuntarily stepped back. Moon stood in front of the wormhole's entrance and fumed, with eyes blazing, looking as if she would make good on her statement.  
  
---------------------  
  
Sun gathered the fabric of space/time into little buds and filled them with something dark. She couldn't think of any other way to describe what she was doing. This was something she remembered being trained in, but never actually attempted. Taking the dark power and folding it into the buds, she gathered them together into pockets of folded space/time. When she had gathered what she felt was enough, she used her power of warping space and flung them far across the pocket universe.  
  
The warping of space kept the buds filled with dark energy in contact with her. It was the same kind of warping of space that she had been using to teleport around, just on a different level.  
  
Even though the distance was vast, the warps made to distance irrelevant. When she felt that they were in the optimum position, she began the sequence that would ignite them. Again it wasn't an accurate description, but the only one way she could describe what would happen. Sun began the coded sequence that was needed to release the pent up energy.   
  
Like a ballerina, she danced in the open space above the Protectors' planet, ignoring the hammering that her armored field was taking. Arms gracefully moved while she arched her back, legs kicked up as she spun and danced to a beat only she could hear. The red stone set in her golden tiara changed color and glowed with a blue light. The coded movements transmitted themselves to the buds through folded space.  
  
The arming sequence had begun.  
  
Sailor Sun's arms went straight to her sides, slightly behind her as she arched her back. She brought her left leg up, her right arm came up and crossed over to the left side of her body and swept upward in one graceful movement. The blue light coming from her teirra changed to a white blazing one. Her wings of feathered flame swayed with her ever move, making her dance seem more... suggestive.   
  
The arming was completed, the code for unlocking the last safety began.  
  
She dipped and swayed, her wings of feathered flame trailing behind her. The white light from her tiara again changed color, back to the blue of before. She did a sweeping movement with her whole body as she began to spin.  
  
The safety was unlocked, the firing codes were next.  
  
She danced more carefully now, moving, swaying and spinning. Her arms and hands made complex patterns as she moved them with grace in front and to the sides of her. Her legs moved in graceful arches and kicks.  
  
Sailor Sun finished as gracefully as she started. She ended up in a pose with one leg bent at the knee protruding in front of her and her arms crossed over her slightly titled head. Her fingers were slightly cupped, as if she were holding an invisible ball in each hand. Her tiara glowed in red light before fading back to its original luster.  
  
The sequence was completed...  
  
... the buds wavered with the contain dark energy, and blossomed.   
  
------------------  
  
Pluto stood and stared at Sailor Moon as she positioned herself between her and the wormhole. Moon for her part, was considering different ways of stopping Pluto if it came to that. The other Scouts uncertain at first about what would happen, moved to position themselves in a way that clearly made Pluto aware of where they stood.  
  
Neptune brought out her Deep Aqua mirror, Uranus her Space Sword the other Scouts prepared for action in their own way.  
  
"We won't let you do this," Moon said defiantly, speaking for all. Inside she was nervous, but the support of her friends steeled her.  
  
Pluto stood before them, her face an emotionless mask.  
  
---------------  
  
The energy released tore into the fabric of space in the Protectors' universe, literally ripping the universe apart at the seams. The deadly blooms spread outward rending the universe in its wake, sending the remnants bleeding into the surrounding universes with the majority being sent back to its mother universe. Traveling outward like waves in a three dimensional pond, the speed at which the devastation moved was incredible. Stars and planets alike were obliterated as the very underpinnings of the universe was torn asunder.  
  
Visually, nothing was seen from Sun's location. The stars in this universe shined as always. But soon the effects would be felt, since the destruction was traveling faster than light. Sailor Sun would have less than two minutes to get back to the wormhole and get out before this end was devoured by the universe falling apart around it. If she didn't, her two choices were to use her sword and escape this universe for another one or stay and be destroyed with it.  
  
Taking her sword, she cut a path to the wormhole. Sun idly wondered if there were any more enemies that would came back to haunt them.  
  
Appearing on the far side of the staging area, Sun immediately noticed many Protectors were moving toward the open wormhole. Knowing at this distance using the Solar Flare would damage the equipment on this end. The possibly of being trapped here with the universe falling apart around her didn't hold much appeal.  
  
Going into compressed time would be useless in approaching the wormhole, knowing how much trouble it caused her before. So keeping her sword in hand, Sun attacked the Protectors gathering in front of the wormhole from behind. Sun began literally cutting a path through the Protectors, making her feel like a 19th century explorer, hacking her way through a uncharted jungle. They fell in droves as she eliminated any in her path. Flashing her wings outward, she cut many down as they burst into ashes at the touch of her power she was feeding through them.  
  
She slashed and burned her way to the opening, and dove through.  
  
-----------------  
  
The minutes seem to drag on as the stand off continued. Pluto watch each of the Scouts. There was no doubt that they were behind Sailor Moon fully. She realized she was out-voted and out-gunned. She sized up the situation she powered down her Dead Scream.  
  
"Very well, your highness," she bowed. Raising from her bow she looked at Moon in the eye, "It will be a matter of time before you will have to deal with her. I hope all of you are up to the task."  
  
Before Moon could answer, the wormhole hissed and turned bluer. The Scouts backed away and prepared themselves, just in case it was more Protectors coming through. In that moment, Pluto took her leave.  
  
------------------  
  
Sun entered the vortex that was the wormhole and raced to clear it before the Protectors' universe ceased to exist. Some of the dimensional markers she noted going in were recognizable, some were not. It troubled her, but she had no other route back to her universe, so she pressed on.  
  
In the Protector universe, the destruction reached the home planet and the wormhole generator. That end of the wormhole collapsed like a zipper being zipped. The wormhole began to fold in on itself, falling out of existence in its wake. All that was holding it open was the equipment on the other end.  
  
As before, Sun noticed the light at the end of the wormhole. The sides of the wormhole started to waver as it self destructed. The light at the end began to narrow. In a burst of speed, fueled by self-preservation, Sun rushed forward using her wings.  
  
-------------------  
  
The entrance of the wormhole flared a brighter blue as the edges contracted.  
  
"It's collapsing!" Mars screamed involuntarily.  
  
"What can we... ", Moon began to ask before being cut off by the increase of the hissing sounds the wormhole was making.  
  
The wormhole flared once, twice then lifted higher off the ground. The chewing gum looking equipment that stabilize it at this end began to bent inwards under the stress. It continued to contract upon itself as the the aperture narrowed the color changed to a purple then reddish color.  
  
In the narrowing gap, Sailor Sun flew out, tucked into a ball. She landed not too gracefully on her butt.  
  
-------------------  
  
The connection from the hyper-space uplink was suddenly severed. The pseudo-cat froze and contemplated what could be the matter. In trying to understand what had happened, the pseudo-cat did a diagnostic of its communications. Everything seemed fine, at least on this end. So that meant that the data streaming in from its home universe had just stopped for some reason. It trotted carefully to the entrance of the alley where it was recovering from releasing the Super Duper Trooper and looked about.  
  
The fighting had stopped.  
  
Contacting the flyer, it found that the powerful Senshi known as Sailor Sun had in fact traveled to their home universe and returned. The time span that she was in their universe was within the time when the data from their universe stopped being transmitted. The pseudo-cat had a bad feeling about what had happened.  
  
----------------  
  
The wormhole winked out with a audible pop and was gone, taking the stabilizers with it.  
  
"Sun! Your safe!" Moon said excitedly while she and the rest of the Senshi ran over to her.   
  
Sun for her part was already on her feet, trying to look dignified after landing so sloppily. After brushing the nonexistent dirt off her back side, Sun looked at the faces of the surrounding Senshi. Something was wrong.  
  
"What going on?" Sun asked as she looked upon the faces of the other Senshi.  
  
"Nothing. Nothing we couldn't handle," Moon said looking at Sun in the eye.   
  
Sun stood for a moment, but didn't ask. Looking at the faces about her, she was certain that something had transpired while she was gone. She noted Pluto was not present, and that added to her suspicions. She decided on investigating later, she was tired and wanted to get home.  
  
"I'll see you guys later," she announced after a moment of contemplation. As she turned to leave, she dropped her super mode and reverted back into her regular Senshi form.  
  
"Wait!" Moon called out. Sun hesitated. "Are you alright?"  
  
Sun turned to Moon and thought, _"She is so much like her mother." _ After a pause, Sun answered softly, "Yes. I think so. I'm very tired and I would really would like to go home."  
  
"Will we see you at the next meeting?" Moon asked.  
  
Sun nodded and not waiting to find out when or where, compressed time as she turned away. To observers she just seem to waver out of existence. Using her "Soul of Ice" to control the friction, she wearily made her way to the nearest park wall and jumped over it. Wandering a few blocks away, she began to look around for some place private to change. She wanted to get back to her regular self as soon as possible, there were some fresh memories tied to her current state that she would just as soon not think about.  
  
Spying a nearby clothing store, Sun entered and made her way to the back, out of sight of anyone and went into normal time. Unobserved, she transformed back into her civilian from. A short skirted, teal dressed Senshi was replaced by a redheaded girl in a pale pink waitress uniform. Ranma was greatly relieved to be back in her non-Senshi form and for now, wanted to put the whole affair behind her.  
  
Well, almost.  
  
Pluto.  
  
She knew she would have to deal with Pluto.  
  
-------------------  
  
Ranma was stopped on her journey home by a patrol of JDF soldiers.  
  
"I got lost during the evacuation and hid out in a store until it quieted down," she explained to the young soldier as he recorded her name and address.  
  
"I see Miss Yonai," the young soldier (_"Sergeant, maybe?"_ Ranma thought) said while looking up from examining her ID. "This area is still restricted, I'm afraid we will have to escort you to a safe area until we receive orders to allow civilians back in," he said the last firmly and with authority.  
  
"Can I just go home?" Ranma asked almost pleadingly.  
  
"I'm afraid not. We have our orders," he replied. "Private Anzai, escort this young lady to the forward aid station with the rest of the stragglers we picked up for debriefing."  
  
"Yes sir," a very skinny private responded.  
  
Ranma sighed tiredly as she knew her long day wasn't over with yet.  
  
------------------  
  
Making her way home, Ranma sighed in relief. She had spent about two and a half hours at the 'aid station' with a bunch of strangers, having to answer a bunch of stupid questions about why, how and where. After all is said and done, she ended up feeling more than a little put upon. There were quite a few people at the aid station who were "stragglers" as the soldier put it. She was surprised, she figured anyone in their right mind would've high tailed it out of there.  
  
Walking home, Ranma noticed the streets slowly coming back to life. It seemed quite a few people decided to hide out in their shops and homes instead of evacuating. She walked alone, not really thinking about anything.   
  
She was trying not to think.  
  
The days events had effected her in ways that she never thought possible. Ranma should have felt on top of the world. She outsmarted the Protector and went to its home universe and destroyed the threat of the Protectors once and for all. In any case, the victory felt hollow.  
  
It was true that she used to get great pleasure out of fighting back in Nerima, especially against Ryoga or Mousse - heck, even Kuno. In some warped way, it was all in fun. No matter how often the death threats came or how vicious the attacks were, how cunning the schemes were, there was like an unspoken agreement, an unseen line that no one crossed. It was all like a game, just rough housing or sport.  
  
A pissing match.  
  
Today was anything but a pissing match. It was real. There was difference when the lives of countless people were on the line and you were the only one holding that line. It was truly life and death. Ranma discovered how different it was when you saw first hand the price of failure. A burnt body filled her mind, she shuddered at the memory, then suppressed it.  
  
It was something Ranma would like to forget.  
  
The sun was just reaching the horizon. Shadows created by the surrounding buildings filled the mostly empty streets. Ranma made her way to the front of the restaurant and unlocked the door. Closing and re-locking the door behind her, she leaned against the door and breathed a sigh of relief. She was home. It felt good being home, even though she was alone at the moment. She felt at peace, calm and relaxed. It was good to finally clear her mind and allow the tension of the fight to leave her body and be replaced by a warm, soothing sensation. Taking a deep breath and releasing it as another sigh, she proceeded to cross the room.  
  
"Stupid soldiers. Asking me all kinds of questions, asking if I was some kind of a looter or thief," she muttered to herself, remembering her indignation earlier at the aid station.  
  
"And after asking me all that, he had the nerve to ask me for a date!" groused Ranma. She turned him down flat. He was, after all, not her type.  
  
Plopping herself in a chair by the front window, she stared out it and cleared more of the day's events from her mind. She felt an odd mixture of nervousness and calmness that was hard to describe. Her stomach felt as if were vibrating inside her gut, adding to her discomfort.  
  
_"Just jittery after the fight. It'll be okay,"_ she reassured herself.  
  
She let her thoughts drift back to when she returned from the Protectors' universe. Even though Sailor Moon or the other Scouts didn't say anything to Ranma, she had a feeling that Pluto was going to double-cross her back at the wormhole. It was just a hunch. Ranma remembered a time when she didn't want just to beat the tar out of Pluto, but actually go and kill her.   
  
Thinking about killing and death for some reason made her stomach ache a bit.  
  
Ranma let out a heavy sigh before retreating to a table on the far side of the dining room, near the kitchen. There she sat, lost in thought as the late afternoon progressed into dusk. Ranma sat in the darkening restaurant and wondered at it all. She began wondering about Pluto's point of view and taking in some of the things Akiko said about power and letting it rule you.  
  
She vaguely began to see what Pluto was probably worried about.  
  
It all came back to control. Controlling the power and not letting it control you. Ranma for a moment felt helpless before it. _"No! I have to be stronger than that, if not then... then... Pluto would have been right about me all along."  
  
_She exhaled and tapped the table top with her fingers. Her imagination took over. She pictured what could happen if she let her powers rule her. After the earlier events, the scenes her imagination conjured up were very graphic. It made her feel queasy inside. Ranma closed her eyes and shook away the repugnant images.  
  
_"No! Never!"_ she thought resoundedly. _"I will never let my power control me."_  
  
Ranma sat upright and closed her eyes, clearing her mind and meditated, blanking her mind and letting her thoughts go. When she allowed thought to return to her, she ran into another line that bothered her, _"I have all the power to destroy, but nothing on healing or building or anything truly constructive. If someone were seriously endanger of dying, like in an accident or something, I wouldn't be of any help at all."_   
  
Ranma's head sunk again, this time to touch the table top, _"Why can't I be more... more... I don't know... more useful."_  
  
Ranma sat with her head resting on the table, trying to think of a way around what she had been trained so long in doing: combat. There had to be something more to her life then being some kind of ultimate weapon._  
  
"I am only good at protecting, in destroying those that would destroy us. Why can't I be a builder too?" _Ranma thought more along those lines, _"I don't want to just protect everyone I want to help build. I want to help... without being a... Pluto."_  
  
In the background Ranma heard the radio from the kitchen playing. Ordinarily she would not be able to hear it over the noise in the dining room. Since the room was empty except for herself she could hear it playing if she listened carefully enough. She was hearing the tail end of a summary of the events that took place earlier today, "... and thanks to the efforts of the Japanese Defense Force and Juuban's own mysterious Sailor Senshi, the invaders were defeated with a minimum loss of life. This announcer, on behalf of this station and many other people, would like to thank these heroes for their efforts..."  
  
Ranma tuned the rest of the speech out while thinking, _"Heroes. He thinks we're heroes. I don't feel like a hero." _She exhaled with a heavy sigh,_ "If only he knew how badly I screwed up today..."  
  
_The memory of what she had seen at the alley arose in her mind before she forced it back down and blocked it.  
  
She shuddered.  
  
Her stomach ached a bit more.  
  
Not wanting to listen to the prattle on the radio, Ranma rose from her chair, entered the kitchen and turned it off. Though it was not really bothering her, the act was a welcome distraction from of her more uncomfortable thoughts. Returning to her seat, she involuntarily took up other thoughts that troubled her. She thought deeply, mentally counting something.  
  
_"I know at least four ways to destroy a planet without breaking a sweat, but not one thing on how to save a life. Is that all I'm good for? Destroying things? There got to be more to my existence than that. I can't believe that is all I was ever trained to do."_  
  
Ranma propped her head up with her hands, staring at nothing.  
  
_"There's got to be something more to me than that. There's got to be more than just knowing how to destroy things,"_ Ranma paused again in her thoughts.   
  
_"I can protect those that build with my power," _came an errant idea._  
  
_Ranma considered, then shook her head angrily at herself, _"That's not enough! I want to more than just protect, I want to help build. I want to be more than an agent of destruction."  
  
_She tilted her head to one side as she rested it against one hand, _"I'm going to start looking around. I'm going to find out what's out there outside of martial arts. There's gotta be more to life than this."_  
  
Her train of thought was derailed by another intruding thought.  
  
_"I wonder what the families of those dead soldiers are doing tonight? I wonder how they are feeling," _Ranma sat and pondered.  
  
Ranma sighed heavily again, she had been doing a lot of that. Gathering her thoughts, _"When Serenity died, it hurt like hell. I didn't mind dying to seal the Negaverse away - I remember feeling like I had nothing to live for."_  
  
Ranma looked in the direction of the front door, hoping Akiko would walk through it.  
  
_"Then when I thought I killed Happosai, I was such a mess. I was in pain by the very idea that I had taken another persons life. I was horrified with myself," _Ranma agonized internally with the memory.   
  
Pause.  
  
_"What about the man I dumped in Tokyo Bay?" _She shuddered, thinking of how he may have ended up._  
_  
She shook that off, before forcibly pursuing another line of thought.  
  
_"Pluto thinks she is doing what is right, whether I or anyone agrees with her or not. I am not going to judge her, that is not my job. That's... Moon's and the other Scouts job." _Ranma paused,_ "My guess they don't have a clue what's Pluto is up to. Not that I do neither, but I can bet it is almost as extreme as the Protectors."  
_  
Ranma looked at the front door again, wishing Akiko were there. She had hit upon a way of dealing with Pluto, _"I'll just have to make sure Pluto comes clean with her plans - whether she wants to or not. Then I'll let Moon and the other Scouts judge and decide what to do."  
_  
Ramna once again exhaled a sigh of relief as she stretched out, pressing hard against the back of the seat. She winced as her still tender side reminded her of the injury she received in fighting the Protector. Ranma surveyed the deserted dining room with its tables still laden with forgotten meals and dirty dishes left behind during the evacuation.  
  
_"Might as well start cleaning up,_" she thought as she rose from her chair. _"Besides, I rather be doing something while waiting on Akiko and Michiko to show up."   
  
_Upon rising, she was assaulted by a sudden, but slight headache. It wasn't bad, not like others she had in the past, so she ignored it. She proceeded to go around and stack the dirty dishes together in the center of each table. She then went into the kitchen and brought out several large plastic tubs used for busing the dishes to the back and began loading the stacks into them.  
  
It was around the third table that Ranma began to notice something subtle was happening.  
  
She was feeling anxious and scared. The jittery feelings from earlier grew and crept up on her, now those feelings were swarming all over her. Because of this, her heart started beating faster like as if she were running a marathon. It didn't help that her stomach was now doing flip-flops inside her. Ranma stood there, grasping for control and trying to think of the cause of her discomfort.  
  
_"The fighting was over and done with, so I should be fine,"_ she reasoned as she tried to dismiss the feelings. It didn't help much.  
  
Ranma couldn't understand it. She was finally home and had the chance to relax after the grueling day she had, but for some reason she just couldn't. Sure, she was working, but Ranma was not the kind of person to laze around and do nothing when there were chores to be done. Unlike a certain ex-father.  
  
Exhaling and getting her emotions in check, she willed the uncomfortable feelings away and her heart to slow down.  
  
Gathering another pile of dishes, she placed them carefully into the tub. Preparing to heft the tub into the kitchen, she grabbed the handles on each side. She stopped and lifted both hands up so she could see them.  
  
Studying her hands, she noticed a slight tremble.  
  
"What in the hell wrong with me now?!" she gripped loudly to herself, her voice echoing in the empty room. She backed away from the table a bit, took a deep breath and closed her eyes to refocus on the task at hand. After a few breaths, she ignored the trembling in her now sweaty hands, lifted the tub and carried it to the back.  
  
Returning to the dining room after leaving the tub by the dishwasher, she continued with her mission. Preparing to pick up a stack of dirty dishes to place them into the tub, Ranma froze as she fixated on the top plate. This plate was titled at a dangerous angle from the food beneath it.  
  
There was a clump of ketchup, thick and dried out except for the vinegary edges which was still watery. Running slightly toward the edge of the plate, it dripped down landing on the top of the table where the drop splattered. Ranma stared, watching the ketchup drip, watching the puddle on the table grow.   
  
It was so red.  
  
Blood red.  
  
Eyes.  
  
Ranma trembled.  
  
_"No! I will not do this! I will get a hold of myself! It's over with!" _she mentally screamed to herself.Then more calmly and with resolution,_ "There's no reason to think about it._"  
  
Closing her eyes and with her arms at her sides, she began to collect herself. After a moment she felt a little more in control and once again resumed her task. Filling the tub up with the dishes, she hefted the load to the kitchen. Before returning to the dining room, she stopped long enough to load the racks of the industrial dishwasher and start in on cleaning the dishes. Back in the dining room she began busing the last few tables.  
  
Working around the last table she tried to not think of anything. She was successful in keeping her mind a blank, but her feelings and emotions filled the void. She soon began to feel nervous.  
  
_"I wonder what in the hell's wrong with me? Ever since I got home I feel like... I don't know, like something out to get me or something,"_ she thought with a touch of panic.  
  
Panic. That set Ranma's heart racing again.  
  
She stopped her work and wondered what was the matter as her heart raced and her nerves were suddenly on edge again. She had never quite felt this way before, and it was alarming her. She tried desperately to calm herself. Instead her hands started to shake with more vigor. She closed her eyes and tried to force those feelings down, to still her hands and steady her body, but it was to no avail.  
  
_"I wish Akiko was here, I wish I could calm down,"_ she thought as she opened her eyes to see if that would help.  
  
Ranma grabbed the edge of the table with both hands to steady herself. She closed her eyes again in another desperate attempt to control the tidal wave of emotions that were threatening to overwhelm her. As soon as her eyes closed, images of what she had seen earlier assaulted her. This time, the more she tried to push them out of her consciousness the more they forced their way in.  
  
A burnt torso...  
  
_"No!"_  
  
An arm here...  
  
_"No!" _her mind reaffirmed.  
  
A head rolling toward her...  
  
"No!" she cried out loud.  
  
Eyes looking at her...  
  
"NO!" she finally screamed.  
  
She released her grip on the table and backed away, knocking down a chair in the process. As she moved, her knees started to weaken and her hands started shaking more. The shaking progressed into a tremble that racked through her slight frame.  
  
Too much had happened today. Too much she wasn't prepared for. The gruesome images of the dead soldiers came back in a flood. The bodies laying around the tank and just outside her protective shield flashed through and embedded themselves in her mind. Every horrible image that she had pushed to the back of her mind during the fight, flooded forward - graphically.  
  
She tried to push the memories back, but they would not be ignored any longer. Neither was the guilt she felt.  
  
During the fight, she pushed everything back until later.  
  
For Ranma, later had come.  
  
She barely made it to a chair before she collapsed into it, her body trembling uncontrollably.  
  
_"It is my fault! I was too cocky! I was too stupid! And innocent people paid for my arrogance," _she thought as shakily buried her face in her hands. Her elbow rested on her equally shaky knees, she couldn't control her body, nor did she try to.  
  
More images, an charred arm that was suppressed when she saw it, the burned and broken bodies around the tank and the wounded on the ground crying for help. The head that had rolled toward her near the alley and came to a rest in front of her. Its eyes open wide, looking at her. Staring at her with lifeless eyes.  
  
Accusing eyes.  
  
Sobbing now, Ranma curled up tightly into the chair as she desperately tried to will the images away.  
  
-----------------------  
  
The sun, low in the sky, was drawing long shadows in the battle scared park. A gray cat surveyed the scene and took careful readings. Whatever power that Sailor Sun processed was obviously far greater than what was expected. Some of the residual energy that was spent in the fight was still readable and suggested that this warrior was holding back a great deal of her power. If the information from the flyer was accurate, then it was she that was responsible for the communications failure. If the pseudo-cat was correct in its suspicions, then it won't be hearing from the council ever again.  
  
The flyer landed next to the pseudo-cat at the edge of the park. There was no doubt, all was lost. The mission of rebuilding the Moon Kingdom as their creators envisioned had failed. The pseudo-cat sat and contemplated on what to do next. It was true that they had failed, but the pseudo-cat and the flyer had survived.  
  
The pseudo-cat thought and crossed referenced with other files it had on hand. Comparing it to those on the flyer, it started to form a plan of action.  
  
Between the two of them, with careful genetic manipulations and splicing, they could slowly build a force. It would take centuries - maybe a thousand years to accomplish this. But in the meantime they could try to arrange things to make it easier. After all, they didn't have to cross dimensions to invade and they could do it subtly, take control here and there. Yes, a slow takeover instead of an all-out attack. Something that would avoid detection.  
  
Yes, it could be done. It would take time, a lot of time.  
  
Time was the one thing they had plenty of.  
  
One day the Moon Kingdom would be reborn.  
  
--------------------  
  
Akiko unlocked the door to her home. The street lights illuminated the way for it was very late before she and Michiko managed to find their way there. The story she gave to her grand daughter and son was that she and Ranma got separated in the confusion during the evacuation. It seemed to satisfy everyone, but it didn't stop them from worrying openly about Ranma's whereabouts.  
  
If only they knew.  
  
While sitting and waiting under the tents that were set up for the evacuees, they kept rapt attention to the newscasts of the events in the park. It was almost surreal how quiet the tent was. Crowded with about thirty people, no one talking as everyone's attention was on the loudspeaker set up outside. As if sensing the seriousness of the situation, the children remained as quiet as the adults.  
  
Michiko was worried that Ranma might be endangered, but Akiko soothed those thoughts by pointing out that Ranma had a good head on her shoulders and wouldn't foolishly put herself in harms way. After all, she had survived living on the streets for six months before finding her way to them.   
  
It was finally the end of what had been a long day as Akiko pushed open the front door and allowed Michiko to enter into the dark interior first before her. She then closed and locked the door.  
  
"Granny? I think Ranma's here," Michiko said quietly.  
  
Akiko looked about the dimly lit room and noticed most of the tables had been cleared. "Yes," she answered. "Looks like she got a jump on clean up, why don't you run up stairs and check on her while I check and see if the back door is locked?"  
  
"Okay," Michiko answered before disappearing up the stairs.   
  
Akiko made her way to the kitchen and the rear door, she checked the knob and found it locked, she then slid the dead bolt in place for extra security. She turned around and noted the tubs of dirty dishes by the dishwasher. Looking around the kitchen for any more signs of Ranma's passing, she crossed the room and reentered the dining room.  
  
Michiko was waiting for her at the door, looking slightly frightened. "Granny, Ranma wasn't upstairs, but I found her and I think you should look at her."  
  
"Is she hurt?" Akiko asked while following Michiko.  
  
"I don't know... she just, I don't know." she answered with worry in her voice.  
  
Michiko led Akiko to a dark area of the dining room near the waitress station. Ranma was there, curled up in a ball sitting on her haunches and with her back against the wall. She looked as if she were in a daze, with her eyes half closed staring at nothing.  
  
"Ramna?" Akiko asked softly as she shook the red head's shoulder gently.  
  
Ranma, still curled up against the wall on her haunches, didn't react.  
  
"Ranma?" Akiko asked again a little bit louder, shaking the shoulder equally harder.  
  
Ranma's eyelids flittered a bit and then slowly opened fully. She blink-blinked a few times as if unsure where she was. Almost at a painful pace, Ranma raised her head and looked and Akiko with her ocean blue eyes.   
  
Hazel met blue, Akiko repeated, "Ranma?"  
  
Ranma face was expressionless, a frozen mask showing no emotion at all. As if coming out of a self imposed shell, cracks showed in her facade. Ranma's lips trembled, followed by her body. Her eyes watered and tears once again flowed down her cheeks.  
  
"Ranma?' Akiko asked for the fifth time.  
  
"Oh granny!" with that, Ranma flung herself into Akiko's arms. She buried her face into Akiko's shoulder and began sobbing uncontrollably.  
  
Michiko who found Ranma was relieved that she was alright. That was replaced by great concern after witnessing Ranma's display. She couldn't make out much of what Ranma was saying as she was crying and muffled by Akiko's shoulder. What words she could make out didn't make any sense, words like "screwed up", "dead", "eyes", and "blood everywhere". Wherever Ranma was during the crisis, it was definitely not anywhere safe.  
  
Michiko watched as Akiko held her adopted granddaughter and tried to ease her pain.  
  
--------------------  
  
Ranma was being held firmly, yet gently by Akiko. For her, all the troubles seemed to melt away under the warm embrace. Ranma's uncontrolled crying abated to a soft sobbing. Akiko was gently rubbing her back and whispering words of comfort into the ear of the troubled teenager. In time Ranma's tremors subsided, leaving a tired, but still disturbed redhead.   
  
Michiko retreated to the kitchen and started some tea in hope that it would help Ranma with her nerves. Akiko had managed at that time to get Ranma off the floor and into a chair. She didn't want to leave Ranma alone of a moment to turn on any lights, so she helped her to her feet and crossed the room to an area of the dinning room that had more lighting. Ranma clung to her side, as a child would to a parent after being lost and then found.  
  
"Gr...r...rany," Ranma squeaked out.  
  
"Shhhhh... ," she softly replied in a gentle, song-like manner, "You have had a bad go of it. Don't try to talk yet. Let's get you settled first."  
  
Her words caressed through Ranma's being, seemingly touching her soul. Akiko had a way of talking that calmed people around her. Sometimes Ranma wondered if Akiko and Kasumi were related in some way. Her nerves were still shot, but with the calming influence of Akiko, Ranma was more in control of her emotions. Clinging closely to Akiko, she was lead to a chair in a better lit part of the room, where she was seated.  
  
In the dim light by the wall, Akiko couldn't see how Ranma looked. Now under the light above the table, she saw what a mess she was. Ranma's eyes were red from crying, her hair was pulled half out of her ponytail and overall she looked like hell. It was Ranma's emotional state that drew the most concern. It was obvious that Ranma was suffering greatly at that level.  
  
Michiko came out of the back carrying tea service. She carried it over and gently placed the service on table, so softly she did this that no sound was made. She poured some of the tea into the cups and sat one in front of Ranma and Akiko She then sat down across from Ranma, looking on with concern.  
  
"I... I'm sorry," Ranma whispered out.  
  
Akiko sitting next to her, pulled her into another gentle hug and said, "Don't talk now. " She then indicated the cup in front of Ranma, "Here, drink this."  
  
Ranma obeyed without thought, picking up the cup with shaky hands, trying not to spill any of the contents. In the end, Akiko had to help her with it.  
  
After setting the cup down, Michiko asked, "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"  
  
Ranma shook her head and answered softly, "No, I'm not hurt... at least not where you can see it."  
  
"It's late. Are you up to talking about it now?" Akiko asked, continuing, "Or would you rather wait until the morning?"  
  
"I... don't know. I'm sorry. I don't mean to worry you... it's just that... I shouldn't... I mean... " Ranma was beginning to ramble.  
  
"It's alright, dear," Akiko reassured. "Whenever you are ready, we'll be here to help."  
  
Ranma nodded as the three of them sipped at their tea. Afterward, Akiko and Michiko escorted a emotionally and physically exhausted Ranma upstairs and helped her get settled in her futon. There, she fell into a troubled sleep.  
  
-------------------------  
  
She cursed to herself. Pluto had failed to watch over the time-stream like she was supposed to. She didn't know for sure, but it was a good bet that if Pluto wasn't so absorbed in her own unauthorized schemes of rebuilding the Moon Kingdom she would have spotted the Protectors' tampering sooner. Watching for threats was Pluto's job, rebuilding was to be left to others.  
  
If Pluto had stuck to her instructions of watching for threats instead of taking the unnecessary task upon herself, none of this would have happened.  
  
As it was, she made a real mess of things. Not just missing the coming of the Protectors, but because of that, Pluto had to interfere with Ranma's life and then try to kill her when she was through with her. This was something that had to be addressed, but she didn't want to reveal herself.  
  
Then again, she had made a mess of things in her past life. With her working in the background, hopefully things will go better. If her presence were reveled, it could undo all the work that has been done in the past thousand years. She did not want a repeat of the fall of the Moon kingdom.  
  
She had spent over a millennium steering a path through these dark ages toward the rebirth of the Moon Kingdom. She worked by not influencing major events, but by adjusting and affecting the unimportant. Over her past 15 incarnations, she pushed and pulled the tiniest, almost insignificant, things to move the world toward that rebirth. It did not effect the major events, like countries coming and going, wars won or lost, but it slowly created a foundation for the rebuilding of what was to be.   
  
It was amazing what was important to her goal: a needed tool in the right place here, a book where it could be found by the right person there, making sure someone was early or late for an appointment. All the things she did were very small, very small indeed. The events she influenced were like a drops of water into a bucket. But over time, those drops would fill that bucket.  
  
Her plans were frustrated sometimes by Pluto getting in the way.  
  
She would talk to Luna and Artemis about this, hoping that it was something her daughter could handle.   
  
She sighed to herself.  
  
It was a good thing that she caught on to what Pluto was doing, otherwise Ranma would have ended up who-knows-where doing god-knows-what right now. She understood the reasons behind what Pluto did, but didn't approve of the methods she employed. Why, Ranma was almost driven completely insane by the discovery of the manipulations that Pluto had done to her and the destruction of her male personality.  
  
Then again, considering how Ranma's life was going, it was probably for the best. But that didn't excuse Pluto for her failures, nor her attempt at ending Ranma's life or exceeding her authority. She sighed to herself again.   
  
For her part, she had barely managed to steer things without Pluto catching on so that Ranma would end up where she was.  
  
She always felt that Ranma's past life happiness was more artificial than real. Here she hoped that Ranma would have a chance for true happiness. The way it was going, however, that might not be possible unless she exerted a little of her power to do so. She would have to be very careful not to expose herself. It was a risk, but she strongly felt she owed Ranma at least that much.  
  
Tonight, she would act.  
  
----------------------  
  
Ranma was groggy as she felt herself floating in a void. Wondering what was happening, she opened her eyes and looked about on the dimly lit scene. She found herself standing outside somewhere, to her right was a brick wall, plainly seen, with a drain pipe down the side of it. To her left was another wall, but she couldn't see any of its details. The ground was pavement, patched here and there with asphalt and scraps of forgotten newspaper blew throughout the alley, carried around by a gentle breeze.  
  
The alley.  
  
Ranma's heart raced.  
  
"How did I get here?" she asked herself.  
  
Not knowing how she got there and not wanting to be there, Ranma fled toward the alleyway's entrance. When she reached the opening she was met by shadowy figures who stood, blocking the alley's opening like a wall. They looked like silhouettes, standing just outside the dim light that seemed to come from no one source. Backing up a bit, she instinctively appraised and dismissed them as a threat in almost the same moment. But there was something about them...  
  
--------------------  
  
A figure moved down the dark hallway, moving gracefully and without sound.  
  
She had sensed Ranma's discomfort as she moved quickly and quietly through the second floor hallway. Ranma had suffered enough in two lifetimes, she would see to it that she would not suffer any more than necessary.  
  
Entering the room that Ranma sept in, she looked down at the prone figure in the half light. She moved closer to her...  
  
-------------------  
  
"Who are you?" she asked the crowd.  
  
No answer was forthcoming.  
  
"Who are you?" she repeated in a demanding way.  
  
As if to answer her, one of the figures reached up with his hand. Taking hold of his hair, he lifted his head clear of his shoulders and tossed it at Ranma. She jumped back in horror as the head nearly landed on her feet. Its eyes at first starred at nothing before fixating its gaze at her. Its mouth moved...  
  
------------------  
  
Ranma began to stir in the throes of her nightmare. The figure standing over her was unperturbed by this and continued with her mission. She knelt by Ranma's head and concentrated...  
  
----------------  
  
"This is your fault," a disembodied voice said as the head before her mouthed the words.  
  
"No! Please!" Ranma pleaded. "I didn't know! All I had were vague feelings and forgotten memories.... I didn't mean..."  
  
"That's not an excuse!" The voice cut her off, "You got cocky! You got arrogant! You should have known. You should ..."  
  
-----------------  
  
Ranma mumbled something in her sleep, and her body started to move restlessly. The dark figure's head bowed over the sleeping form and scanned the emotional state of the young girl. This was not good, the kneeling figure's forehead glowed - a symbol appeared.  
  
She touched Ranma empathetically.  
  
----------------  
  
In her dreamscape, Ranma was now on her hands and knees, crying.  
  
"I know I screwed up, okay?! I know it's my fault, okay?!"  
  
The eyes of the head turned colder, "You should be willing to die for your failure. Honor would demand it. You should have never have tried to come back from the..."  
  
"Stop!" a new voice from behind Ranma announced. "You did the best with what you could remember and saved countless lives. You neither earned nor deserve this treatment."  
  
A feeling of... contentment flowed through Ranma. Suddenly the anger, the self doubt and mostly the guilt, evaporated. Her mind slowly calmed and the alley with its phantoms faded into a fog leaving her with whoever relieved her pain.  
  
_"Who?" _Ranma thought as she turned to face the newcomer.  
  
She was a good deal taller than Ranma. She had long, light silvery hair done up in odango-style, her blue eyes pierced hers. The woman's equally long white strapless gown sported a crescent moon affixed to a bow across her chest. Peeking out and half hidden among the locks of hair was a crescent moon on her forehead. Her eyes were so blue. Ranma's mind refused to engage at the sight before her.  
  
"Auntie?" Ranma finally whispered.  
  
-------------------  
  
The women's forehead began to glow slightly more as a crescent moon formed there. Ranma's forehead mirrored hers, glowing with its own symbol. She expected this and took measures to be sure she wasn't detected, especially by Pluto. Still kneeling over Ranma's futon with their heads almost touching, she continued to concentrate on the task at hand.  
  
In Ranma's dreams, they connected.  
  
------------------  
  
"Auntie? Is it really you?" Ranma asked again, with a waver in her voice.  
  
Serenity moved closer to Ranma, "Yes sweetheart, it's me."  
  
Glomp  
  
"Oh Auntie! I screwed up so badly! I tried! I really tried, but I just got to overconfident. I should've listened to what my feelings were trying to tell me and I didn't. Now a lot of people are dead because of me."  
  
Serenity folded Ranma into a comforting hug.  
  
"You are still just a child. You did what you could," Serenity cooed into Ranma's ear.  
  
Ranma felt warm in her embrace and thought about Serenity's words. "But, I'm not a child, I'm going to be seventeen in a few months," Ranma complained.  
  
"Tell me about your training." Serenity said.  
  
"My training?" asked Ranma, caught off guard. She looked up at the taller women holding her.  
  
"Yes, tell me what you really remember about the training you did as a Senshi for the Moon Kingdom," Serenity said softly, gently and yet in a commanding way.  
  
"Well," Ranma snuggled closer, thinking back to her earliest memories, "at first, there was a lot of ... of like hand to hand - you know martial arts type stuff. To toughen me up."  
  
"Then?"  
  
"Then... once I was... granted my powers, I was taught how to control my fields, destroy asteroids, star fleets, solar systems, that kind of stuff."  
  
"So, what specifically about your training do you remember?"  
  
"Not much, mostly in my dreams. Most of the time they're more like feelings and... I don't know, it's like instinct or something."  
  
"What does a vague feeling tell you? What does instinct tell you?"  
  
Seeing where this was going, Ranma leaned into Serenity and cried, "I still should have known!" She then cried into Serenity's shoulder. "I was just too cocky! I got careless! And now they're..." Ranma broke down even more.  
  
"Shhh," came the gentle response and a rocking motion.  
  
The rocking lulled Ranma's pain and eased her guilt. The feeling of warmth and peace poured through her as she collected herself. She pulled back a bit and looked at the person holding her carefully. There was no doubt that this was who she thought she was. She also noticed that she was no longer in the alley.  
  
Looking about her, Ranma noticed she was somewhere familiar to her, but where she couldn't place. The balcony she found herself on was curved and wide as it overlooked a city of light. The Earth hung in the night sky. She blink-blinked at the change of scene and looked back up at Serenity.  
  
Two pairs of blue eyes met.  
  
"Back to your training. How did your Senshi training relate to what you did today?" Serenity prompted.  
  
Ranma stared off into space, considering the question carefully before answering.  
  
"I... ahh... not much. Not until I got the Protector out into space where I could deal with him."  
  
"So, your training as a Senshi prepared you for today's battle?"  
  
Ranma sighed, "Not really. Most of what I did was improvised from stuff I... I picked up... in this life," she finished as a whisper.  
  
Ranma leaned back to look Serenity in the face. "Every time I tried to use one of my Senshi attacks, I had to stop myself because it was too powerful," she said softly.  
  
Ranma then thought a little more, "If I hadn't trained myself to tone down what I did, I could've easily - " Ranma paused as she thought more deeply, "I could've easily wiped out most of Tokyo - if I was careless."  
  
Ranma came out of her trance-like state and looked at Serenity, "But the dead..."  
  
"Shhh," Serenity gently said as she rubbed Ranma's back. "You did not kill those soldiers. The Protectors did. You could say that the Techo-mages were more responsible for what happened today then anyone else."  
  
"Techo-mages?"  
  
"The ones who created the Protectors in the first place. Instead of destroying them or rendering them harmless, they sealed them away in a pocket universe for 'reference' just in case they needed to examine their handiwork later."  
  
Ranma just stared at Serenity as she continued, "So like any undetonated bomb, the Protectors ticked away until they went off."  
  
Ranma thought about it that way before whispering, "But, it could have turn out so much better, instead I screwed up."  
  
"True, but you never have been in a real fight before," Serenity softly said.  
  
"I fought plenty of times..." Ranma began to protest.  
  
"But did you take your fights seriously? You always treated your fights in the past more like a game didn't you? I believe the term you used was 'a pissing match'?"  
  
Ranma looked at Serenity for a moment, then nodded.  
  
Serenity looked Ranma in the eyes before continuing, "Consider this: Training, no matter how much, is not real life. Under the circumstances you did what you could."  
  
Ranma, slack jawed, continued to stare into the calm ocean blue eyes of Serenity. Serenity leaned foreword and kissed the shorter girl on the forehead.  
  
"Now sleep."  
  
Ranma knew nothing more.  
  
------------------  
  
She had put Ranma into a relaxed, dreamless sleep. Using her powers, she probed here and there, reinforcing and patching the tortured girl's psyche where needed. She could, if she wanted to, remove the memories causing Ranma's nightmares, but that would eventually change her personality and that was something she didn't want. Besides, doing so would be wrong. Ranma would need those memories in order to grow, and to grow and mature is what Ranma needed to do.  
  
Failure and dealing with pain is part of growth.  
  
Also, she didn't want to make a mess of things like she did the first time around.  
  
She sighed to herself. Depending on one thing was one of the reasons the Moon Kingdom fell in the first place. It depended too much on her and not enough on the others. No matter how hard she tried to train her daughter and the other Scouts to take some of the responsibilities, in the end it always came back to her. Now with herself out of the picture, her daughter and the rest of the Senshi would have to grow and not be dependent.  
  
They would grow into leaders, not followers.  
  
The next time the Moon Kingdom rose, there would be others to share the burden with her daughter.   
  
Her work completed, she withdrew from Ranma's sleeping quarters and slipped out into the hallway.  
  
------------------


	17. Juuban part 15

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine for pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope. Without his assistance, my head wouldn't be hurting so much from thinking.  
  
Constructive criticism always welcome.  
  
Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
I don't own any of these characters or situations, this is done purely for fun. As always the spelling errors are mine, as are the grammar mistakes.  
  
Juuban part 15  
  
--------------------  
  
Sailor Pluto materialized before the Gates of Time. Looking about, she checked the Gate's condition before exhaling explosively in frustration. She fumed to herself over the turn of events. Everything was going so well until Moon stopped her from doing what was necessary. If she had foreseen what would happen, she would just have blasted the stabilizers without warning and sealed Sailor Sun away, hopefully forever.   
  
She really should have known better. Seeing anything in the future concerning Ranma had been difficult before. It had now become almost impossible since she came into her powers. Even in her un-Senshi form, Ranma was masked from the power of the Gates of Time.  
  
_"Sailor Sun," _Pluto thought. _"The last and most powerful Senshi ever created."   
_  
She sighed as an uncertain fear griped her.  
  
_"And without anything to keep her in check, the most dangerous."  
_  
The Techo-mages put all their knowledge and experience from making the other Scouts into the creation of Sailor Sun, the Senshi of the Nexus of Time and Space.   
  
Pluto was frustrated and afraid.   
  
_"I can't see into Ranma's future, that is now closed to me," _she thought in a controlled panic. _"With the power that Ranma has at her disposal, how long will it be before she succumbs to the temptation of her power?"_   
  
_"God knows I have witnessed enough examples in history to know that it's only a matter of time..."_  
  
She finished that thought with a heavy sigh as she leaned against her staff and looked around.  
  
She was alone.  
  
Again.  
  
When she began her mission to watch and protect the Earth from threats during the dark ages, she hadn't expected it to stretch for as long as it had. She had spent centuries watching over the time stream for any danger that might lurk in the future. The monotonous duty was broken occasionally by some anomaly, real or imagined, that was investigated, classified, and dealt with. Using the Gates and knowing with good probability what was going to happen, turned out to be the ultimate spy tool.  
  
At first, the only time she left the Gates was to deal with threats that endangered the Earth.  
  
Over time, Pluto had changed.  
  
Loneliness can do so much to a person. She first noticed its effects when she started to lose interest in her task. Her loss of motivation came to light when she nearly failed to stop a minor threat from growing into a major one. It had also dawned on her how her general attitude had changed. The years began to numb her feelings and emotions - especially those that were defined by associating with other people.   
  
First, she tried to combat this by "taking breaks" and "getting out" when she felt she could leave the Gates for brief periods of time. When she did however, paranoia would soon set in and she found herself, instead of relaxing and socializing with other people, worrying about the safety of the Gates instead. It was so bad when she tried to take two days off three hundred years ago, she found herself "just checking" the Gates almost every hour. This was in spite of various ways of monitoring the Gates remotely.  
  
Besides, it was depressing to met people that she knew she would outlive.  
  
After a fashion, Pluto began to lose all sense of emotions altogether. Joy, sadness, anger and happiness were all blending together into a big nothing that was being filled with cold logical thought. She was slowly becoming dehumanized.  
  
The last few years that she associated with the Outers were surprisingly difficult. She had put up a good front, but after being alone for so long she found it awkward and arduous to become emotionally involved with anyone. She tried, but she felt more like a prisoner that just came out of solitary confinement and was sometimes unsure on how to behave around people.  
  
Approaching the Gates of Time, she stopped and once again, leaned against her staff, pausing in thought.  
  
Her mind drifted back to the day when she viewed far into the future to see what the results were of her vigilance. A new Moon Kingdom was discovered in the major time stream at the end of the dark ages she was in the midst of. Apparently it rose on its own accord - but at a very ponderous pace. She often wondered how it was possible for she could not see anyone doing any rebuilding. After hundreds of years of observing the slow progression out of the dark ages, she grew impatient.   
  
She just wasn't sure if she would be still be sane by the time the resurrected Moon Kingdom was reborn.  
  
Becoming despondent by just watching for and dealing with threats, she decided to actively take a hand in rebuilding the Moon Kingdom. With no instructions to the contrary, Pluto decided to lend a hand to speed things up a bit. If the ends were the same, or nearly the same, why not? With her prodding and manipulations she had a renewed interest in her duties and the construction of Crystal Tokyo.  
  
And it shaved at least five to six hundred years off the dark ages.  
  
Over time, Crystal Tokyo became an obsession that eclipsed her original duties. She was sure Serenity would have appreciated her efforts.  
  
But her efforts came at a cost. She almost missed the coming of the First Enemy, or the Protectors as they were also called. It was clear that in spite of how much the Senshi had progressed as a fighting unit, they would be hopelessly outnumbered by a foe that couldn't be reasoned with or persuaded. They would need help.  
  
Looking into the Gates for the last, most powerful, and forgotten Senshi, she was dismayed to find the she had been reborn as a male in this life. Useless for accessing the powers that were sleeping inside him. Something had to be done and she succeeded in doing it. For this, the Pools of Sorrow and Genma's stupidity were a godsend.  
  
She didn't care if it almost drove Ranma insane. She wasn't planning on him to survive long after the conflict ended anyway. Sailor Sun could deal with the threat of the Protectors and she would deal with the threat of Sailor Sun.  
  
All that changed when Sailor Moon interfered.  
  
Pluto thought about the words of Sailor Moon "... how do we know you haven't become corrupted by your power? The power to manipulate events and time can be considered a great power, can't it?"   
  
For some reason, Moon's words disturbed her more than she wanted to admit.  
  
She shook her head. "_No. Crystal Tokyo and the Moon Kingdom will be a reality. I'm doing what Queen Serenity would've have wanted,"_ Pluto reaffirmed to herself.  
  
Then doubt set in, _"Am I?_"  
  
She stood and regarded her actions,_ "No. I am doing the right thing. I must convince the others of this. I must convince them Ranma is a threat - after Galaxia, that should be easy."  
_  
--------------------------   
  
Eyes.  
  
Ranma bolted upright from her sleep with her arms flailing and hands clutching at air.  
  
_"Noooo," _her mind screamed.  
  
Panicked from her dream, Ranma launched to her feet, throwing bedding everywhere and took a defensive stance. Covered with sweat and not knowing for sure where she was at only added to her fear. She scanned the room in confusion for a few brief moments before recognizing it as her own.  
  
Dropping her guard, she slowed her breathing, then steadied it.  
  
Ranma failed to blink away the tears that had formed before she resorted to wiping them away with the back of her hand. Standing in the middle of her sleeping quarters, she blinked a few more times to remove the last of her tears. When she moved her hand upward to wipe the sweat from her brow, she noticed the slight tremble.  
  
_"Oh god, those eyes, I'll never forget those eyes,"_ she thought as collapsed onto her futon, burying her face in her unsteady hands. It didn't help that the Protectors resembled headless men. It just amplified the feelings Ranma had.  
  
A flood of emotions built again and overwhelmed Ranma. Her trembling hands shook more violently against her face as the memories of the previous day played out before her. The battle, the mistakes she made, and finally defeating the Protectors. Mostly it was her mistakes that stood out.  
  
She tried to force back a sob, but it escaped anyway. Tears tracked down the sides of her face, past her hands, that tickling as they flowed downward.  
  
Sobbing a few more times, Ranma sat there, struggling to regain control of her thoughts and emotions. Slowly coming back to herself, she began to calm down as she recalled last night's dream and started to sort through her feelings.  
  
The dream was vivid and real. It was more like a memory of something that had really happened, it was not like remembering a dream at all. She remembered the alley. She remembered the shadowy figures that condemned her for her mistakes. Ranma started to shake again and tears, once more, escaped her tightly closed eyes, making additional tracks down the side of her face.  
  
Then she remember something else, no - someone else who saved her from her tormentors. Remembering back to that part filled Ranma with great assurance, that it would be alright in the end. Her emotional storm was still at full force, but Ranma felt now she could get a handle on those feelings.  
  
"Auntie," Ranma whispered hoarsely.  
  
Ranma then felt the painful emotions peaked, leveled off, then faded.  
  
Looking about the room, Ranma wiped away her remaining tears with the sleeve of her night shirt. Sniffling, she pondered her dream and what it could mean. Muscles, stiff and sore from their exertions of the day before and the long motionlessness that came with sleep, demanded relief. She obliged by extending her arms above her head and reached for the ceiling. She felt her back as it elongated, generating a warmth that circulated up through her arms.  
  
_"Whatta weird dream,"_ she thought as she stretched her back again, working out the kinks. This time, she paused in mid-stretch, letting its warmth flow through her.   
  
Tilting her head to one side, unsure of last nights events, _"It was a dream - wasn't it?"_  
  
She blink-blinked wondering if the dream last night was real or something conjured up by her subconscious to relieve the pain she was in. It seemed very real to Ranma and she hated not knowing for sure. She sighed heavily.  
  
Looking upward, she noted the time on the wall clock. It was very early.  
  
She sighed heavily, again.  
  
_"Those eyes. They were so accusing,"_ she lamented to herself.   
  
Ranma started to shake again. _"I see them every time I think about being Sailor Sun. I don't want to see them again... ever."  
  
_Emotions threatened to overwhelm her again. She rode it out quietly before continuing her self evaluation.  
  
"_I've got dependent on my power. Too dependent. Because of this I have forgotten how to fight, or at least fight effectively."_ She stopped that line of thought, before going on, _"I haven't sparred with anyone in months. If I'm going to be a Senshi, I'm going to be the best that I can be."_  
  
Then with added firmness, _"No more screw ups and no more excuses."   
  
_An intense and graphic memory from the day before was followed by a queazy feeling that crawled through her gut.   
  
_"No more deaths," _she thought weakly._  
  
_In face of the memory, a cold sweat broke over her body as the tremors returned. The pit of her stomach ached as the uncomfortable feelings resurrected themselves. Her queasiness grew until she was forced to make a dash for the water-closet down the hall to empty what little was in her stomach.  
  
After cleaning herself off, Ranma returned to her room on unsteady legs. Crossing over to the window and lifting the blind, she checked what the new day looked like. It was still dark and she just stared at the backs of the buildings, dimly lit by the street lights across the alley. She wasn't really seeing them, though. Her mind was else where as she sat herself on the floor by the window, staring out into space.  
  
_"What I'm I going to do?" _Ranma thought, _"My life is so out of control, I don't think I'll ever straighten it out."  
  
_Taking a deep breath for another sigh, she was distracted by an pungent smell. Leaning over she sniffed her bedding._ "Better put that out on the back roof to air out. I must have sweated a couple of gallons into my futon."  
  
_Sniffing herself, first her front and under her arms, her nose wrinkled. _"I_ _better wash up after that," _she thought. _"I think starting to ferment."   
  
_After one last look outside, Ranma rose to take care of her futon and to get ready for the day.  
_  
------------------  
  
_After setting her bedding on the back roof to air out, Ranma entered the bathroom and placed a change of clothing on a shelf and stripped to her birthday suit. Walking over, she filled the furo and turned the on water heater to keep the water hot. She then righted one of the scrubbing stools and took the bucket and filled it with water. After dousing herself with it, she began soaping up.  
  
After yesterday, she felt very unclean.  
  
As she bathed, Ranma's thought's became unfocused as her mind wandered from one problem to another. She pondered about the changes in her life, what they meant and about the power she controlled.   
  
Power.   
  
She had a lot of it. Not just a lot, but an insane amount of power.  
  
Enough power to drive anyone insane.  
  
Ranma shuddered and sighed. She was going to deal with it. She wasn't the type of person who would run from anything and she was not about to start now. She wasn't going to run from the responsibility that came with her powers or her newfound personal demons.  
  
Ranma's arms dropped to her side as she considered the magnitude of her powers and her responsibility. Her power was her responsibility. Who ever thought that power, especially power you controlled, would be something to fear? Ranma feared hers and in a way, felt small against it.  
  
_"What in the hell am I going to do?" _The genie, as they say, was out of the bottle and there was no way to put it back. _"It doesn't feel right having this much power. I neither earned or deserve it," _she concluded.  
_  
"But I won't run from this, either,"_ she thought to herself as she shook her head. _"Like it or not, it's something I have to deal with."  
  
_As she resumed scrubbing, her thoughts drifted backwards.   
  
Fighting side by side with the Sailor Scouts was... wonderful in a way. The sense of belonging that filled her when she thought about that eased the pain. Defeating an enemy that would have... "eliminated any deviators" in the human race and not stop until the world was rebuilt in a preprogrammed idea of the Moon Kingdom was also... wonderful. It was like performing or fulfilling a great duty. Ninety-seven percent of the human race owed their existence to her.  
  
No. Not her. Sailor Sun.  
  
_"That Protector sure was tough,"_ Ranma thought as she scrubbed down her front. _"It took a lot of work to finally kill.._."  
  
Ranma froze in mid-scrub again to consider what she had just thought.  
_  
"Oh god... I killed. I killed before in the park and a voice told me it was alright. What the hell I'm I turning into?"  
  
_She continued to sit on the stool, frozen in mid-scrub.  
  
_"They were just machines. Biological machines... it doesn't count. Does it?" _She thought hopefully to herself.  
  
Other thoughts invaded her mind.  
  
_"Just because they were created in a lab somewhere, did that make them any less alive? They may have been biological fabrications of a long dead kingdom, but that didn't change the fact that they were living beings. Living beings - maybe with thoughts, ideas and possibly dreams of their own."_  
_  
_Ranma arms once again dangled by her sides as the impact of what she did hit her.  
  
_"Oh god. I didn't just kill, I destroyed a whole freakin' universe. How I'm I going to put a lid on that. What the hell I'm going to do?"  
  
_Ranma's heart rate shot upward in her panic, _"I didn't stop to think about this when I was fighting. Why am I thinking about this now? Why am I wondering now if what I did was... was ethical or not?"  
  
_She took a moment to compose herself. It would do her or anyone else any good if she went off half cocked. Ranma found her center and continued her line of thought, somewhat calmer.  
  
_"What if..." _Ranma's mind began, _"What if next time the enemy isn't a biological fabrication? What if it is a real living, breathing and intelligent being? Would I act the same way? Would I destroy them utterly? How would I feel and what would I do?"_  
  
She paused to consider that.  
  
_"I will do whatever it takes to protect this world,"_ was her firm answer. _"I didn't have a choice. The Protectors, and the way they were programed, would not have stopped and gave me any other options. It was my responsibility to stop them and the more responsibilities you have, the less choices you have."  
_  
It was at that moment the Ranma started to think that maybe she was not a martial artist anymore.  
  
Just what she was now, she wasn't sure.  
  
------------------  
  
Ranma was dressing after drying herself off from her bath when she resumed her thoughts on the problem with power.  
  
Power.   
  
_"I have power. Power people could only dream about," _she thought as she slipped her bra on. She was starting to hate the very reality of her situation.  
_  
"This power made me stupid and reckless. As a martial artist, I have sworn to protect the weak and I'm going to do my best to uphold that promise,"_ she thought while donning a pair of black pants._  
_  
She paused as she tied her pants off at the waist, could she protect herself from herself?  
  
_"Maybe Pluto's right,"_ Ranma rationalized. _"Maybe it would have better if I would have died or something. How can I be sure that someday this power won't turn me into everything I fear?"   
  
_She pondered this uncomfortable idea before shaking her head angrily,_ "I bet that's what Pluto is afraid of. Never! I would rather die first."_  
  
She grabbed her red shirt off the shelf and prepared to put it on. She paused looking at her shirt.   
  
It was red.   
  
Blood Red.  
  
Mistakes of yesterday reasserted themselves. Her mistakes and no one else's. Her stupid, cocky, arrogant mistakes. She remembered the alley...  
  
... and those eyes.  
  
Ranma shuddered as she stared off into space, looking lost for a moment as she unconsciously slipped into her shirt. Buttoning up the front without thought, she turned to the mirror out of habit to check her appearance. For a moment she saw herself in the glass without really seeing herself.  
  
Then something dawned on her.  
  
Yesterday had changed her. In the mirror, she looked the same, yet different. She looked physically as she always had, but something was off. She studied her reflection carefully and narrowed the change down to her face.  
  
Her eyes to exact.  
  
She could see something haunted deep within.  
  
Her eyes.  
  
Accusing eyes.  
  
Ranma shuddered, as a chill ran down her spine that touched something much, much deeper.  
  
As she exited the bathroom, she was sure of one thing: she would never let her power corrupt her.  
  
Those eyes would see to it.  
  
-----------------_  
_  
Ranma made her way to the stairs and headed down. One of the steps creaked softly as she put her weight onto it just before she landed on the ground floor. Crossing the dining area, she looked about her and noticed that the job she had left unfinished the night before had been completed. Going straight to the kitchen, she opened the door to discover Akiko just hanging up the phone.  
  
"Granny?" Ranma ventured, for some reason feeling unsure.  
  
"Ranma! You're up," Akiko said with surprise. "I thought after yesterday you would be sleeping in."  
  
"Ahh... yeah," Ranma answered sheepishly while pulling her ponytail.  
  
"Are you feeling better?" Akiko asked, her voice laced with concern.  
  
"Ahh.. yeah," Ranma replied, but her voice was uncertain. "Amazing what a night's sleep can do."  
  
Akiko raised an appraising eyebrow, crossed the room and placed a hand on each of Ranma's shoulders.  
  
"Are you sure?" She asked in her gentle, yet commanding way.  
  
"No," she answered while looking down. "I'm not sure. I'm not sure about a lot of things right now."  
  
"Then we should talk - Michiko won't be up for hours, you know her," Akiko said.  
  
"Ahh... yeah," Ranma thought for a moment, "Granny, I don't like keeping Michiko in the dark, she is my sister and I feel like I am lying to her."  
  
"I understand. But, would you want everyone to know what you are?"  
  
Ranma shook her head.  
  
"When Michiko is old enough to understand the importance of keeping her mouth shut, then you can tell her. She will understand."  
  
Ranma looked up to be caught in Akiko's hazel eyes. Fear and uncertainty stabbed at Ranma's heart as she nodded mechanically.  
  
"Now - let's get some tea and you can tell me all about it," she smiled and bustle off to the already heating kettle.  
  
-------------  
  
Later, after much talk and two cups of tea...  
  
"How do you feel?" Akiko asked in her gentle way.  
  
"Better. That dream last night was... I don't know, therapeutic I guess," Ranma replied while trying to grasp for words. She stared off into space, reflecting on the dream, "It seemed so real...," she whispered.  
  
"If it helped you, then it does it matter if it was real or not?" Akiko asked.  
  
Ranma thought on this before answering, "I guess not, I just feel... no, I hope it was real. It was the first dream that I really got a good look at her. It was good to see her again."  
  
"What are you going to do now?"  
  
"About Pluto? Well, I'm..." Ranma began before being stopped by Akiko laying a hand on her arm.  
  
"No. I don't mean that. I mean with your life. What are you planning on doing with it? You said that you wanted more than martial arts. "  
  
Ranma sighed while thinking about martial arts. It was still important to her and tried to imagine what to add to it.   
  
"A person should not be defined by one thing," Ranma finally said.  
  
Akiko waited patiently for Ranma to finish her thoughts. As she did Ranma stared out the large front window. Outside the beginnings of the early morning gray signaled the new day and birds were making their presence known by song. Ranma continued to stare at the darkened street, illuminated by the dim street lights.   
  
Ranma moved around in her chair as she continued to think deeply. She shifted her gaze from the outside world and rested her eyes at her empty cup before her.  
  
"Balance," she finally said as she looked up. "It all comes down to balance. Concentrating on one aspect of life to the exclusion of everything else is like... is like..." Ranma smiled,"... depending on one thing to get by on."  
_  
_Akiko returned the smile as Ranma spoke one of her of her own fundamental beliefs.  
  
"But I can't ignore what I am. I almost lost yesterday because I haven't really done any hard training or sparring in months. All the power in the world can't help me if I don't know how to apply or use in correctly."  
  
"... and how to morally apply it." Akiko rounded out a thought for Ranma.  
_  
"Morally?" _Ranma thought_. "Right. I need to learn when, how and if I should use it. I wonder how the other Scouts do it? What do they use for a moral... a moral guide?"  
  
_A moment passed between the two women before Akiko spoke up, "So... what are you planning to do with your life?"  
  
Ranma looked at Akiko in the eye before just as quickly looking away. She fidgeted for a brief second before beginning, "I really don't know. I never really sat down and thought about it. My life, before coming here, was planned out before I was even born. I really don't know... I really don't know where to begin."  
  
"I think you're starting in the right direction by wanting something more. What I would suggest is to think about your life, where you have been, what you have done and then about where you want to take it."  
  
"Think about my past? Why? I want to try and plan for the future."  
  
"If you don't know where you've been, then you don't know where to go."  
  
Ranma blink-blinked at that. _"Oh well, Granny has never steered me wrong so far,_" she thought, before saying, "Okay, Granny. I'll do that."  
  
Akiko smiled at that, "Good, I'm sure that you will find it helpful. Oh, before I forget. Could you work next Saturday?"  
  
"Ah... sure. It would have to be after school lets out. Why?"  
  
Akiko's smile broaden, "Well, Fumiki got married last night."  
  
"Married? That was quick."  
  
"She didn't go into detail. She did say after what her and her boyfriend - that is husband - went through yesterday, they were not going to wait. I can find others to fill in for her during the week, but Saturdays are always tough."  
  
Ranma returned the smile. "Well, in that case, sure. I don't mind."  
  
"Thank you dear. Now, I think you should concentrate on what you are going to do. If you need to talk, I'm here for you. I'll talk to Michiko, I'll tell her that you witnessed some - unpleasant things - yesterday. It will keep her from asking questions."  
  
Ranma looked lost again as she thought about what Akiko said, "Yes... I think you're right. It would be for the best."  
  
On that note, Ranma excused herself. She had a lot to think about.  
  
-----------------------  
  
Ranma walked about her neighborhood. The sun was now shining low in the early morning sky as she made her way to the wide avenue near where she lived. Lost in thought, the coolness of the morning went unnoticed by her. Out of habit, she headed in the direction of the park, until she realized that the park was still closed and cordoned off. She sighed, she had a lot to think about and nowhere to think.  
  
_"At least it's quiet,"_ she thought to herself as she made her way in the direction of the temple. As she walked, she didn't take note of the thin morning traffic of service vehicles as they passed by. Eventually, she found a bench at a bus stop to sit and think.  
  
Ranma thought about her life.  
  
She was aware of her shortcomings, but never really sat down and considered them before. At first it was something she avoided thinking about, hoping that her problems would simply go away. Later, she realized that no problem goes away by itself and only by working on solving it can you even hope to resolve it.  
  
Socially, she knew she was lacking.   
  
_"Not being around people most my life made it so I had a hard time dealing with people,"_ she thought, _"and living almost half a year on the streets didn't help either."  
_  
Although she was surrounded by millions of people, she had mostly kept to herself.   
  
_"I'm glad my friends and family have been so helpful," _ she smiled to herself before sighing at a embarrassing memory. _"But sometimes they have to point out when I'm acting like a kid."  
_  
She still had some trouble, in spite of the encouragement from Akiko and Michiko, relating to people her age. She was getting better. Hanging around Michiko, Hitomo, Chiyo and Tamami had helped a lot, but she knew she had a long ways to go. The sad fact was in spite of Ranma being close to seventeen, she related better to kids who were almost four to five years younger than her.  
  
Ranma sat, moving on to her next problem.  
  
Sex.  
  
In spite of having a sex changing curse, Ranma couldn't understand what the big deal about sex was for that matter. Mainly because she didn't know anything about sex.  
  
When she first started Juuban High, the Health and Science teacher Mrs. Harada, was appalled by the lack of knowledge Ranma processed in that area. During the first week, Mrs. Harada had pulled Ranma aside or a little private chat about the 'facts of life'. It was at that moment that some of the reasons why people acted the way they did came clear. Ranma was a little green after the talk, especially after learning the mechanics involved.   
  
She was so ignorant. And she had been like that a long time.  
  
Usually, when a child is one to two years old, they can tell the difference between a boy and a girl. Many child psychologists suspect the age is even earlier, but there is no conclusive scientific tests for children younger than the age of one. The child was not aware of why the differences existed, but they could still tell a boy and girl apart.   
  
When Ranma first met Ukyou at the age of six, back when she was a he, he couldn't tell that Ukyou was a she. Looking back, it was obvious that Ukyou was a girl, but at the time it never occurred to him that there could be anything outside of... what he was.   
  
Ranma knew now that even back then, she was very far behind other kids her age.   
  
Even more recently when she was living on the streets and being exposed to all sorts of perverts, she couldn't really understand why they were being perverts. All she knew is that she didn't like to be touched or fondled in 'that way'. It was frustrating and embarrassing and sometimes the uncomfortable feelings that accompanied such abuse were difficult to deal with. Ranma couldn't really understand why the perverts did what they did - until Mrs. Harada had enlightened her.  
  
Ranma sighed as she sat. Another facet of her life reared its head.  
  
Her education.  
  
For a long time, she didn't really understand the need for an education. As Genma would put it, "a true martial artist doesn't need schooling". She went along with it for the longest time because to her it made sense. If you are training to be the best martial artist around, why would you need a formal education? Would knowing your times tables make you a throw a better punch? Would knowing what happened on a certain day over five hundred years ago improve your kicks?  
  
Then again, knowing how to fight didn't keep her off the streets or put a roof over her head when she needed it the most.  
  
She discounted and ignored so many things because they were not part of her world view.  
  
A very narrow world view.  
  
Things were different now.  
  
Academically she was still behind her peers, but making great strides in the right direction. All her instructors had commented on how bright she was and how quickly she picked up on things. Encouraged by her teachers and friends, she applied herself and studied more in order to catch up with her class. There was no doubt that she would have to have some type of schooling during breaks, no one misses as much school as she did without getting far behind, but she was making good progress which pleased herself and everyone else.   
  
Ranma had learned the importance and necessity of an education and cursed Genma for keeping her so ignorant, and the problems he created in her upbringing.  
  
Her upbringing.  
  
When she was younger and showed any interest, whether it be social or intellectual, in anything outside of martial arts, Genma was there to crush it. Everything outside of martial arts was considered "girlie", "unmanly" or "for weaklings". So in striving to be "the best" in Genma's eyes, she had sold herself short or totally ignored important aspects of her life.  
  
Aspects that she was now realizing were more important than martial arts.  
  
Genma had unintentionally or deliberately kept her ignorant.  
  
She suspected it was more intentional and that Genma would not have bothered to send her to Furinkan High if he thought he could get away with it.  
  
_"Knowledge is power,"_ Ranma remembered one of her teachers telling her. _"Genma was keeping me ignorant so he could have power over me."  
_  
She sat there and pursued that line of thought,her anger slowly building, _"Genma didn't want a son, he wanted a slave that would keep him in retirement in style. I was just a means to that end. When I got stuck and that fell through, he wanted me to marry that fossil of a friend of his. All just so he wouldn't have to work."_  
  
She stared off into space, letting her mind wander to claim herself. Blinking a few times, she resumed her thoughts, _"He kept me in the dark of so many things. Things that are important."_  
  
Her eyes narrowed as anger reasserted itself, _"He kept me stupid so I would depend on him to call all the shots. And I let him! He kept me stupid and I let him! Bastard."_  
  
_"First Pluto screws me big time in my past life and then this one,"_ she continued. _"Genma lead me around by the nose, used me and sold me like some whore! Some whore so he could enjoy his life! What the hell about me? What I wanted? What about my life?_"  
  
Ranma expanded on that line of thought and began a full blown rant internally, _"Does everyone feel the need to manipulate my life? To control me? To use me? To treat me like some object without thoughts or feelings?"_  
  
Ranma took a calming breath, it didn't help much.  
  
She sat and fumed as nasty thoughts concerning a certain panda-man bopped around in her head.  
  
_"Maybe I should pay a visit to my ex-father. He screwed with my life, destroying it in his own way. I should go and..."_ Ranma froze in mid-thoughts of vengeance.  
  
Those eyes.  
  
Ranma shuddered and calmed herself, letting the tempest of emotions pass. After a moment, a calmness flowed through her taking the strong emotions with it.  
  
_"No. That is the past,"_ she concluded. _"The dead past as far as I am concerned. I'm now going to concentrate on the future. I know I don't want to be used anymore. I know I don't want to be just a martial artist anymore. Hmmm... What to do, what to do..."_  
  
A loud hissing sound, not too unlike the sound the wormhole made, tore Ranma from her thoughts in a panic. She looked up and was greeted by a bus that was stopped on the street. She blink-blinked at the vehicle before noticing the driver through the open door looking at her from behind the wheel. She puzzled at this before realizing that the driver was waiting for her.  
  
She smiled and shook her head slightly. The driver nodded, tipped his cap, closed the door and engaged the gears smoothly. The air brakes hissed again as they were released and the bus moved on down the road. Ranma followed the bus with her eyes as it moved away from her. Her thoughts were derailed by the interruption.   
  
She sighed as she rose from her seat.  
  
_"Maybe I'll talk to the school counselor tomorrow and see what kind of suggestions he has,"_ Ranma though distractedly. She studied the sky and noticed some clouds moving in from the west.   
  
_"Doesn't look like rain,"_ Ranma thought as she evaluated the weather. _"Maybe I'll go to the temple and see what's-her-name and find out when the next Scout meeting is."_  
  
On that note, Ranma proceeded in said direction.  
  
------------------  
  
Climbing to the shrine, Ranma spotted a figure half way up, sweeping the stairs. She had her back to Ranma and her long dark hair flowing over her robes. Ranma recognized her as Mars, but couldn't put any names to her outside of that. As she approached, she fought the sudden playful urge to sneak up from behind and surprise the shrine maiden.   
  
"Good morning," Ranma called out openly.  
  
The figure turned and with a look of surprise, responded, "Good morning Ranma."  
  
"Ahh...," Ranma began, feeling awkward for not remembering Mars' real name. She felt very uncomfortable all the sudden and stopped to compose herself. She then began again, "Sorry about taking off like that yesterday, it's just... a lot happened."  
  
"Usagi thought as much," Rei replied. "Would you like to come up to the shrine for some tea and talk about it?"  
  
"Ahh...," Ranma faltered around a bit, not expecting this, "No. No thank you, I have to be getting home soon. Um... when is the next meeting?"  
  
"Tonight around six,"Rei smiled. "Are you planning on coming?"  
  
"Yes... there is something important I need to know," Ranma replied while thinking, _"Man, she's not a pain in the ass when she's normal." _  
  
"Are you sure there's not anything I could help with?" Rei asked.  
  
"Not at the moment," Ranma said. She was beginning to feel relaxed and comfortable talking to Rei, "That is, it's a question that would be best if everyone was there."  
  
Rei studied Ranma for a moment and looked as if she were about to say something rash. She began to idly sweep the step before her before saying, "Okay then, I'll tell the others to expect you."  
  
Ranma looked back at Rei and wondered what the shrine maiden could be thinking. She sighed and added, "Okay, but don't tell Pluto though, that's what I need to ask all of you about."  
  
Rei looked uncomfortable for a moment, before speaking, "That should be easy, she never comes to the meetings unless she feels the need to."  
  
The feeling of awkwardness returned as Ranma made her leave.  
  
"I'll see you tonight at six," she called over her shoulder.  
  
Rei nodded and return to her chores as Ranma made her way down the stairs.  
  
-----------------  
  
The street lights were still coming on when Ranma arrived at the intersection where the narrow street where she lived met the wide avenue. At this time of the evening, the traffic on the street was light as was distracting noises that would be made by it.   
  
She had decided to wait for Usagi and Ami and walk with them to the meeting. Ranma had just finished helping prep the restaurant for the next business day and excused herself by saying she wanted to take a walk to think some things out. Michiko having been told an edited version of Ranma's unpleasant encounter by Akiko, didn't ask any questions.   
  
Ranma looked about her as she causally leaned against a post box, hugging herself to help keep warm against the coolness of the evening. Yes, winter was well on its way. There was a sharp crispness in the air as she breathed it in, the kind that clears the sinuses and the mind. In the dimming light, she mentally noted all the neighborhood landmarks that Michiko first pointed out to her the day after she was taken in by the Yonai's.  
  
_"Everything seemed so simple back then,"_ Ranma smiled as she mused at what she considered 'simple'.  
  
Having time, while she was waiting, Ranma thought deeply on the changes in her life. It really wasn't that long ago that she was taken in by the Yonais and soon formally adopted into the clan. She found that overall, she was better off now than at any other time in her life.   
  
_"Life's so weird,"_ she mused as she stood waiting for the girls to come by. _"First being a girl, dying and being reincarnated as a boy then back to being a girl again."  
  
_She looked up and watched the shifting colors of the sky,_ "And I wasn't just any girl, I was a Senshi... for a very long time. I still don't remember it all, but it makes the fifteen - sixteen years I spent as a boy seem... insignificant."  
  
_Ranma pondered this point for a moment before thinking,_ "Then again, I remember a time when being a boy was... normal."_  
_  
_With one hand on a 'no parking sign', Ranma spun around it all along considering her life for the umpteen time today.  
  
_"It's nice to live where people don't treat you like an object or a slave with no say so,"_ Ranma thought._ "The Yonai's are supportive and openly care about me. Akiko is like a... a... mother - a mother I never had."_  
  
Ranma stopped her rotation around the sign as she started to get choked up with the emotions brought about by that line of thought.  
  
_"She cares for me. All my mother did was give me away to Genma. All she cared about was getting a 'man among men'. All she cared about was some ideal, not her child. I wish she cared for me even half as much as Granny," _Ranma thought while fighting back tears. She regained control when a young couple walked past her. She wasn't afraid of her emotions anymore, but it wouldn't do to cause a scene in public._  
_  
To distract herself, Ranma turned her thoughts to her life as it was before being disowned and just as quickly turned away. She didn't even want to think about how she would be treated if she were still back in Nerima. No. She had decided earlier that morning that Nerima and anyone from there was the past. They were dead to her and she would not think about them anymore. They didn't matter anymore. She had a future to plan out - even if she wasn't quite sure what that future was.  
  
But she would think of something.  
  
Beginning to get bored while waiting, Ranma continued to look around her. The bottom half of the buildings across the street were illuminated by the street lights while the tops were in silhouette from the setting sun. The sun itself was unseen, hidden by the buildings behind her. It made its presence known by turning the sky an uncomfortable shade of red.  
  
Blood red.  
  
Ranma averted her eyes and started to pace, impatient for the other girls to show up. She walked and kicked the leaves that had collected on the ground from the trees planted beside the avenue. The leaves were red.  
  
Red.  
  
_"Damn. Red used to be my favorite color," _she thought bitterly. _"I may have to go out and get some different color shirts."  
_  
Ranma quickly found a barren space along the sidewalk, without any red to make her feel... uncomfortable. She toed the sidewalk, suddenly feeling awkward, nervous and self conscious when she heard her name being called.  
  
"Ranma!"  
  
Looking in the direction that her name came from, she recognized the two girls approaching her. The one with the with the short hair she knew as Ami, the other with the twin ponytails in meatballs startled her with her appearance.   
  
In Ranma's dreams everyone was some indistinct or faceless person that she felt more than saw. Now approaching her was a sharper vision of someone from her dreams. Without a doubt Usagi looked like a younger version of ...  
  
"Serenity," Ranma whispered softly, slightly amazed.  
  
"Ready to go?" Ami asked.  
  
Ranma nodded distractedly and the three girls made their way down the street.  
  
--------------------  
  
Rei lead Usagi and Ranma into the room with Ami following behind. Ranma looked at the others who were already there. She nervously search each of the girls faces, trying to put names to them. It was no good, with the exception of Ami, she only seen most of the girls a couple of times and had been introduced only once.  
  
Usagi crossed the room and settled on the edge of the bed while Ami took a chair by the desk. The six other girls were seated on the bed or the around on the floor. Looking about for a good spot, Ranma settled on a place on the floor near the door. Sitting cross legged, she continued her study of the others.  
  
After what felt like an uncomfortable eternity to her, Ranma spoke up.  
  
"Ahh... hi," Ranma ventured shyly.  
  
_"This is odd,"_ Ami thought. _"She's not acting the way she was the last time she was here. I wonder what happened to her?"_  
  
"I think introductions are in order," Ami said, filing that thought away. "I'm Ami Mizuno," she added with a smile.  
  
"Yeah. I remembered when you helped me with my math," Ranma replied, returning the smile with a small one of her own. "Ah... I'm sorry, I've forgotten everyone's names."   
  
"That's okay, I'm Usagi" said the blond who bore a striking resemblance to Serenity. "We'll be happy to introduce ourselves."  
  
Ranma looked over to the others sitting in a semi circle around the room. As the other girls introduced themselves, she paid special attention when it came to Haruka's and Michiru's turn. Two names she wanted to remember.  
  
Ranma looked and Haruka and Michiru. Hotaru sat between them, staring back at Ranma with questioning eyes.  
  
_"That's different,"_ Ranma thought, wondering how this child fit in with their lives. An unsure feeling accompanied it. Jealousy?  
  
When the last Scout had finished, Usagi piped up, "Well, I would like to welcome you to our little group."  
  
"Ahh... thanks," came Ranma's hesitate reply as uncertainty assailed her again.  
  
There was an uncomfortable silence that followed, at least it seemed to Ranma. It was broken when Ami perked up. "Would you mind if I ask you some questions?"   
  
Ranma eyed her.  
  
"If you don't mind, that is. If you don't feel like answering, I understand."  
  
Ranma, unsure what this was leading up to, nodded tentatively.  
  
"Yesterday," Ami began, "how did you move so fast? I couldn't get any readings from the Mercury Computer."  
  
"Oh that... " Ranma said while tugging the base of her long ponytail nervously. "I just compressed time and, well... I just compressed time."  
  
"Compressed time?" Makoto asked.  
  
"Ahh... yeah," Ranma fumbled with her ponytail as much as she fumbled for words. "It's like... like... I don't know, like moving at a different time... it's like one second takes forever. You know?"   
  
"So... you can slow time down," Ami said in an attempt to clarify.  
  
"Yeah... kinda," came Ranma's response after thinking about it. She was really beginning to feel uncomfortable being the center of attention.  
  
Sensing Ranma's discomfort, Usagi piped in, "That's so cool!"  
  
As she said that, something jumped in Usagi's lap. Something black and furry. In spite of getting over the Cat Fist during the bonding with the crystal, Ranma's reaction was pure reflex.  
  
"C... C... Cat!" Ranma screamed as she leaped for the ceiling.  
  
"Luna! Hide!" Ami yelled. The cat stunned by the reaction she was generating, froze before responding. She leaped from Usagi's lap and darted under the bed.  
  
Ranma clung to the rafters of the ceiling, looked down on the group as they blink-blinked at her. Ranma blink-blinked in return.   
  
_"What in the hell am I doing?" _she asked herself. _"It's just a c... c... cat."_  
  
Ranma carefully came from her perch and alighted on the floor away from the bed.   
  
"Sorry about that." Ranma explained, "I... I still get a little nervous around c... c... cats. Something my stupid ex-father did to me. I'm mostly over it," she said as she eyed in the direction of the bed. "Mostly."  
  
"That's alright, we understand," Michiru said.  
  
"Thanks," Ranma said as she knelt down. "Here k... kitty, k... kitty."  
  
The black cat cautiously stuck her head out from underneath the bed. Ranma cringed inside, but covered it well. The cat crawled out to within touching distance of Ranma. Ranma put out a shaky hand and carefully touch the cat, giving her a hesitate stroke. The cat responded with a light purr.  
  
"You know, I remember a dream where I used to talk with cats," Ranma said absentmindedly. The black cat was now laid out on the rug, receiving more confident strokes from Ranma.  
  
"You remember the court advisors?" Usagi asked, eyes wide with excitement.  
  
Ranma still stroking the black cat, searched deep within. She looked for filaments of memory before answering the question.  
  
"Yes... a little. Not much," she replied. "I wonder if any of..."  
  
Ranma started to study the cat she was still was nervously petting. She looked carefully at the head, above the eyes where she glazed upon the moon symbol. She stopped stroking the cat and looked lost for a moment. A memory was there, almost out of reach...  
  
"R... Ranma? What is it?" Minako ventured softly as the others crowded around, looking at the distracted redhead.  
  
Ranma furrowed her brow before narrowing her eyes.  
_  
_"Luna. Is that you?" Ranma asked the cat, not sure about the scrap of memory she latched on to.  
  
"Yes," the cat replied with what might be termed a surprised look on her face. "I'm sorry, I don't remember you, most of my memories are like Swiss Cheese."  
  
"Welcome to the club," Ranma replied nonplused by talking to a cat. "I have most of mine closed to me because if I tried to remember my entire existence before I'm ready, I could hurt myself."  
  
"Do you remember Artemis?" Luna, now sitting up asked. The rest of the room was watching this unexpected exchange.  
  
"Artemis? Artemis?" Ranma thought out loud, trying to latch on to anything. She eventually shook her head, "I'm sorry. It doesn't jog anything loose."  
  
"That's alright. Looking at you, I have a vague feeling of you were quite the prankster," Luna stated. "What do you remember most?"  
  
"What I remember gossiping with you after the balls, or at least dreaming about it... and I... I remember dancing," Ranma answered before continuing with a distance look in her eyes. "I used to love dancing. It was one of the few times I felt free."  
  
The room looked at the spaced out girl as she was absorbed in her half forgotten memories.  
  
"So... what happened yesterday?" Rei asked suddenly, out of the blue.  
  
Ranma, shook out of her state by the unexpected question, looked at the long haired girl before answering, "I don't want to talk about it."  
  
"Why not?" Rei replied, slightly tartly.  
  
"I just don't want to talk about it, okay?" Ranma said, while mentally adding, _"You insensitive jerk."_  
  
"I'm just trying to help, no need to get your nose of of joint," she shot back.  
  
"Rei... " Usagi cautioned.  
  
"You wouldn't understand," Ranma shot back with equal vigor.  
  
"Try me," Rei challenged.  
  
Ranma narrowed her eyes at Rei as she thought, _"Why in the hell doesn't she take a hint? What is her problem? Stupid, uncute, ... I bet she's also a macho-" _  
  
"Ranma," Ami said softly, derailing Ranma's internal rant, "Rei may lack tact," earning a glare from said girl. "But we all are concerned about you. You're so different from the last time we met. Did something happen yesterday?"  
  
Ranma warred with her emotions. It was true, she was different from the last time they had met. At the last meeting, when she clandestinely followed Usagi and Ami, she was confident and cocky in her abilities - now she wasn't so sure anymore. The deaths she witnessed and blamed herself for took a lot of confidence out of her. She was coming across almost as meek as she was when she first came to the Yonai's._  
_  
Luna approached the disturbed girl carefully and sat in the space formed by her crossed legs. Ranma, without thought, began petting her again with long strokes as she tried to keep her emotions in check.  
  
The silence dragged on a few more heartbeats._  
_  
"Ranma?" Usagi asked softly. "Are you okay?"  
  
The uncomfortable feelings she had been warring with resurfaced. She redoubled her efforts to force them down. Quietly Ranma prepared to answer Usagi's question. Before she could however, Rei interjected.  
  
"Well? Are you going to answer?" Rei said in a slightly annoying way.  
  
_"God, she's grating on my nerves," _Ranma thought before blurting out, "Okay. I messed up yesterday. Happy?"  
  
Silence.  
  
"O-kay" she drawled out. "But we won yesterday. How did you mess up?" Rei asked, congratulating herself for getting somewhere._  
  
_"I... I... messed up, okay. I messed up big time and... " Ranma trailed off.  
  
More silence.  
  
"So you messed up," Rei said while crossing her arms. "Is that all? We can't help you unless you tell us what's that's bugging you."  
  
"Bugging me? You want to know what's bugging me you uncute..." Ranma stopped herself as she fumed at Rei.  
  
"I'll tell you what's bugging me," Ranma finaly worked out, "I screwed up big time and got people killed in the process..."  
  
Ranma didn't look up when she spoke. She didn't want to see the looks that she imagined on thier faces or what they must think of her..._  
_  
"Ranma?" Usagi asked softly. "Are you okay?"  
  
The uncomfortable feelings she had resurfaced. She forced them down and answered Usagi's question.  
  
"No," Ranma said evenly. Looking down at her lap, Luna looked up into her eyes. Ranma closed hers, not wanting to see anything. "I don't think I'll ever be okay again. I saw," Ranma's voice cracked a bit, "people getting killed. And it's all my fault."_  
  
_Ranma heard someone exhale softly in the ensuing silence.  
  
"How?" Usagi gently prodded as the rest of the room remained quiet.  
  
"I... got careless and overconfident. It cost ..." Ranma broke away and that point and was quiet. She began to shake and fought the emotions that threatened to take over.  
  
"That wasn't your fault," Usagi said.  
  
"You don't know that!" Ranma said loudly, startling the others in the room. Tears were threatening to form in the corners of her eyes, she quickly suppressed them.  
  
The room was was once again plunged into silence. The only sound was the ragged breathing from Ranma.  
  
"Have you ever seen anyone die before?" Ranma quietly asked to no one in particular.  
  
"Yes," Usagi answered. "When we were fighting Beryl, and last year Galaxia . I watched and felt everyone I love die before finally defeating them."  
  
Ranma stared at Usagi. The last name didn't mean anything to her, but the first loosened a memory. "Beryl?" she said incredulously. "I thought she was sealed away with the others. What happened?"  
  
"They came back," Rei replied, more sharply than she intended, earning a glare in return from Usagi and a few others.  
  
Ranma reacted as she were punched. "They?" she asked.  
  
She looked into the faces of the girls who were now crowded closely. "Did I screw that up too?" Ranma asked weakly._  
_  
The others looked back at the stricken girl.  
  
"That doesn't matter right now," Usagi spoke up trying to comfort Ranma before she fell into despair. "All that matters is that you are not alone in this. We will," gesturing to everyone in the room, "all of us, will help you through this."  
  
Ranma shook her head while whispering, "Those eyes." Looking down she addressed the group, "I can't stop thinking about those eyes. It's like they knew I screwed up and ... I can't stop thinking about them."  
  
Ranma was shaking now as her guilt assulted her again. Usagi looked at the venerable redhead, moved closer to her and placed a comforting arm around Ranma's shoulder.   
  
"It will be alright, you have to believe that," Usagi said.  
  
Ranma looked into Usagi's eyes and softly said, "I just never seen anyone die before. I never really thought about it before. I never thought it would really happen - and to see it ... there in front of me Ranma broke eye contact while shaking her head, - I don't know."  
  
"I won't lie to you, it will hurt," Usagi said softly while drawing Ranma into a hug. "And like I said, we'll help you through this."_  
_  
Ranma looked up and stared at Usagi, face to face.  
  
"Wha...?" she said intelligently.  
  
"That's what friends are for," she said smiling with her blue eyes in 'puppy-dog' mode.  
  
Blue eyes met blue. A memory of a dream. Ranma was moved.  
  
"Th...thanks," Ranma squeaked out as she managed to force back the tears that were threatening to escape. Didn't help. She bowed her head and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.  
  
_"Dammit! I'm so emotional lately," _Ranma berated herself, _"I guess seeing people get killed would do that to anyone."  
  
_Unsure as to what to do, the other occupants in the room watched the silently weeping girl. Usagi continued to hug and comfort Ranma. Ranma, tensed for the briefest of moments before tentatively and slowly returning the hug. The other girls crowded around and gave quiet words of encouragement. Ranma soon was in control of herself again.  
  
"Tell me, did you do the best that you can?" Usagi asked softly, still hugging Ranma.  
  
Ranma sat and thought before answering, this was too much like the dream, "Yes. But ...," Ranma paused and then continued, "If I had listened to what my instincts were trying to tell me, if I had practiced on more... then..."  
  
"There is a saying," Ami piped up, "and I forgot where I read it, is that 'hind sight is twenty-twenty'."  
  
Ranma, still sniffling a bit, stared blankly at her.  
  
"It means that it is easier to spot your mistakes after you make them than before," Makoto clarified.  
  
"I still should have known," Ranma mumbled out, but internally feeling somewhat relieved. She was beginning to tire from the roller-coaster of emotions she had been on.  
  
A somewhat pleasant silence fell.  
  
"Is there anything else that is bothering you? We can try to help," Usagi said in a way that eerily reminded Ranma of someone else.  
  
Ranma was back to petting Luna again. With Usagi sitting beside her, she stared off into space as she composed her thoughts. She took in a deep breath and exhaled it evenly.  
  
"Yeah... maybe. I don't know," she finally said, almost unintelligently.  
_  
_Rei opened her mouth to say something, but Minako beat her to the punch.  
  
"Take your time."  
  
Ranma looked at all the girls looking back at her expectedly. Screwing her courage up, she spoke.  
  
"My power," Ranma muttered.  
_  
_"Is there something wrong with your powers?" Ami asked growing concerned for the redhead.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Ranma composed herself again. Her head drooped as she continued quietly, her voice filling with despair, "I have all this power, all this ... this... responsibility that goes with it and... I don't know what to do."  
  
The others in the room were moved by the hopelessness in the redheads voice.  
  
"You see...," Ranma continued quietly, "I've been doing a lot of thinking - at first I was angry with her... and... but... I can see... why Pluto would be worried about me."  
  
"What do you mean?" Hotaru asked.  
  
Ranma sighed. "Do you have any idea how powerful I am?"  
  
"We saw some video of you destroying a star system..." Minako began.  
  
Ranma shook her head, "If only..." she mumbled quietly before sighing, "Look, destroying a star system is... nothing. The Protectors' universe had thousands of stars and tens of thousands of planets - and I destroyed it."  
  
Once again silence filled the room.  
  
"A whole universe...," Rei squeaked out.  
  
"Thousands of stars..." Michiru mumbled.  
  
"... planets," Ami muttered.  
  
Ranma nodded her head.  
  
"How... er, how powerful are you?" Rei ventured as she eyed nervously.  
  
Ranma regarded the others in the room for a short moment before answering, "I really don't know."  
  
"What do you mean you don't know?" Rei asked.  
  
"I mean," Ranma explained, " I'm not sure of how powerful I am."  
  
"We could have used you earlier when Galaxia came," Makoto said.  
  
"Who?" Ranma asked.  
  
Ami waved Ranma off, "Never-mind. Long story."  
  
The room descended into silence once again.  
  
Ranma concentrated on what was she was going to ask. It was awkward, but she needed to know. She sniffled a few times and resumed stroking Luna again, who was still in her lap.  
  
There was a moment of silence that was broken again by Usagi, "What ever problems you have, we'll help you."  
  
"Ahh... thanks, Usagi, er, ah - guys," Ranma said sincerely. "I needed to hear that."  
  
Taking a deep breath, Ranma broached the subject, "Um... guys, I need to know something."  
  
"Certainly," Ami spoke. "What so you need to know?"  
  
"So... er, what's the plan?" Ranma asked.  
  
The girls in the room looked and each other and back at the red head, blink-blinking at the question.  
  
"... plan?" Ami ventured.  
  
Ranma blink-blinked back in return and look at each of the girls faces in turn. They hadn't a clue what she was asking.  
  
"I mean, ahh... what is the plan? You know - are we just here to fight the bad guys or are we here to do something more?"  
  
The girls looked at each other in silence.  
  
"O - kay," Ranma drawled, in a way that reminded everyone of Rei. "How about: What do any of you know about any plans that Pluto is doing?"   
  
The girls looked at one another.  
  
"Plans?" Ami asked.  
  
Ranma sighed in exasperation, this was not going as she envisioned it.  
  
"Pluto watches over the time stream." Ranma explained. "She manipulates it more than we probably know, what she did to me is just an example. What I'm asking is what are her goals and how is she planning on achieving them?"   
  
"We... I mean, I don't know. We never thought about it and the way she... she comes in and tells us things we need to know," Michiru said.  
  
"True, but she also evades any questions," Ami interjected.  
  
"Leaving vague meanings behind," Makoto finished as the rest of the Scouts nodded.  
  
Ranma thought carefully about what she was about to say."Maybe we should find out."  
  
The silence that followed stretched many minutes.  
  
"How?" Haruka asked.  
  
"We go and ask her," came Ranma's careful reply.  
  
More silence.  
  
-------------------------  
  
Somewhere indeterminate, that existed outside of normal time and space, a slit appeared in midair. It glowed softly before it widened, separating into an opening. Sailor Moon stuck her head through and looked around. She had been there once, a long time ago and never thought she would be there again. Stepping through, others followed until the last one, a redhead dressed in a teal fuku sealed the way behind them.   
  
The group of girls found themselves in what felt like a room, but it was hard to define. It had a floor, but no walls or ceiling that they could see. The quietness of this place was eerie, for their footfalls didn't make a sound on the smooth surface of the floor. The place didn't seem to be outside, but there was a feeling of vastness as if they were.   
  
A short distance away they noted a ornate door.  
  
In front of the door, with her back to them and holding a staff was Sailor Pluto. So absorbed in watching whatever, she failed to notice the group as they approached from behind.  
  
Ten feet from Sailor Pluto, Ranma held her finger up to her lips. She gestured with her free hand toward Moon. Moon smiled and silently and with uncharacteristic grace, came up behind Pluto who still was absorbed in watching the Gates of Time.  
  
"Whatcha watching?" Moon asked playfully.  
  
"EEEEP!" Pluto screeched as she leapt away and spun to face her would be attacker. She froze when she realized that she wasn't alone anymore.  
  
Her usual speech about breaking the taboo died in her throat when she realized who was with her now.  
  
"What are you... what are all of you doing here?" Pluto demanded, hiding her nervousness.  
  
"We're here to play a game," Sun answered innocently. "Or to put it more accurately, we're here to watch you play a game."  
  
"A game?" Pluto asked with a raised eyebrow, felling uneasy about where this was going, "What kind of game?"  
  
"Probably the first one you learned as a child," Sun evenly answered. "It's called show and tell."   
  
Sun's eye's narrowed, "You are going to show us and tell us what you have planned."  
  
Pluto looked at Sun and then Moon, and back at Sun again.  
  
Sailor Pluto was ordinarily a calm, cool and logical person. She instantly analyzed and studied the situation it from many angles before deciding on a course of action.  
  
"Shit," she muttered.  
  
This was going to be a long evening.  
  
---------------------  
  
===============  
  
Author's notes:  
  
The posting of chapters will probably be coming at longer intervals, I had a set back of sorts. When I first plotted out this back story, it was early morning at a 'Taco Cabana', and I outlined most everything out. On napkins.  
  
Mmmm.. something about Tex-Mex food...  
  
Anyway...  
  
I transcribed most of the napkins into a text file that I been following (more or less) since the beginning. I copied up to about half way into this chapter, before setting them aside to begin work on actually writing. Well, to make a long story short, I can't find the napkins that I plotted out the rest of the chapters in this story arc. I'll have to rethink and reconstruct the outline...  
  
... or do I dare, "wing it"?  
  
Either way, I haven't given up, it will just take longer to get it done.  
  
I thank you for your patience.


	18. Juuban part 16

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine for pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.  
  
Constructive criticism always welcome.  
  
Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
I don't own any of these characters or situations, this is done purely for fun. As always the spelling errors are mine, as are the grammar mistakes.  
  
===========  
  
Juuban part 16  
  
--------------------  
  
Somewhere outside of space and time...  
  
"The whole solar system is moving toward an area of space where there is a..."  
  
"... it was not detected, because the particles are so dark, they absorb light..."  
  
"... passing through, a critical percentage of the energy from the Sun would be blocked ..."  
  
"... the temperature would quickly drop to a point where..."  
  
"... and after the world freezes, you would..."  
  
"... and establish Crystal Tokyo."  
  
The group was transfixed by the revelations of Pluto. The freezing of the Earth would doom billions of people and assure Crystal Tokyo - at least as Pluto envisioned it.  
  
"How can something like that get so close to the Solar System without anyone noticing it?" Jupiter asked.  
  
"The cloud is made up of a type of dark matter," Pluto answered in an controlled voice.  
  
"What is dark matter?"  
  
"Dark matter," Mercury answered, " is a... general term used to describe matter is the universe that cannot be seen."  
  
"Correct," Pluto confirmed.  
  
Mercury whipping out her computer did a quick search.  
  
"According to the computer," Mercury continued, "there are two possible types of dark matter. One is called MACHOs - that stands for MAssive Halo Objects, guys. And the other is called, get this, WIMPS - that means Weakly Interactive Massive Particles."  
  
"And...?" Venus prodded.  
  
"There is a third type," Pluto interjected. "It interacts as weakly, as weakly with normal matter as WIMPS, but over a certain - concentration - it can effect light. So invisible are these objects that it is impossible to detect them with the tools available today - even when they are between the Earth and Sun. The only indication for observers on Earth of what would be happening is an apparent decrease in the Sun's output."  
  
"What would happen if we prevent this?" Mercury asked.  
  
Pluto shifted uncomfortably, "The Moon Kingdom would be re-established - only about five to six hundred years later."  
  
"Why in the hell," Moon stated firmly, "didn't you say anything about this. This is worse that the Negaverse, Galaxia, and the Protector's combined."  
  
"There's nothing we could have done to stop it..." Pluto said lamely.  
  
"What do you mean nothing we could have done? Sun could probably stop it, right?" Moon said tartly while thumbing to said Senshi.  
  
Sun remained silent in uncertainty.  
  
"But," Pluto hesitated, "I wasn't planning or counting on having Sun here to help. If it wasn't for the Protectors', I would not even have bothered..."  
  
"Bothered to try and trap her in the Protectors universe as she destroyed it?" Moon pointed out.  
  
Pluto's mouth opened to say something, but whatever it was, died.  
  
"And you thought this was alright?!" Sailor Moon screamed at Pluto. "What the hell were you thinking?!"  
  
"I was trying..." Pluto began.  
  
"I don't want to hear it!" Moon shrieked.  
  
Moon stood there, surrounded by her Scouts, shaking in anger. All was quiet except for her labored breathing.  
  
Moon rounded suddenly on Sun, "You can stop this." It wasn't a question, but a statement.  
  
"Yes ma'am," Sun responded immediately and without thought. Then her brain caught up with her mouth, "I mean... I think. What would be the best way to deal with this? I mean, how should I deal with... a cloud of invisible matter?"  
  
The other scouts looked at one another, except for Pluto who stood by the Gates like a statue and Mercury who was typing frantically into her computer.  
  
"The best way," Mercury said, while reading off something on her screen. "Would be to disperse the cloud enough so when the solar system passes through, the amount of light being filtered out is negligible."  
  
"How about if I... oh, never mind, bringing it together in one spot would be bad," Sun thought out loud.  
  
"Why not?" Mars asked. "It seems to me that it would be easier."  
  
"Easier, yes," Mercury agreed. "But it may disrupt the gravitational balance in this part of the galaxy too much and beside that, turning it into a large massive object would be just as dangerous."  
  
"Can you do it?" Moon asked Sun again.  
  
"Yes. I can," Sun answered.  
  
"Do it. Now."  
  
"Wait..." Pluto interrupted as Sun called her sword up, "if you interfere, Chiba-Usa may never be born."  
  
The room descended into a heavy silence as Moon looked at Pluto, deep in thought, before answering, "If... sacrificing my future born daughter... prevents the deaths of billions of people... then I am willing to do that."  
  
Moon turned to Sun. "Go."  
  
Sun nodded and was off.  
  
------------------  
  
Sun soon found herself in familiar and comfortable surroundings: space.  
  
She stretched her senses to find the object or objects of her mission. The large interstellar cloud of dark particles, unlike gas clouds that reflect and defuse light brightly, was invisible for all practical purposes. To aide in its invisibility, it approached the Solar System opposite the galactic center, coming from a relatively empty area of space. A combination of circumstances that lessened the chances of it ever being detected.  
  
So invisible the cloud was, Sailor Sun couldn't really see it even when she was literally in the middle of it. She instead detected as a slight increase of mass in the fabric of space.  
  
Seeking out the path that the solar system would pass through the cloud, Sun maneuvered herself within its relative line of travel. There she made her way into the cloud dispersing the particles enough so by the time the Earth arrived, it would pass through harmlessly. In spite of the vastness of the cloud, it didn't take long for her to deal with this threat.  
  
Twenty five minutes later, Sun was back at the Gates of Time.  
  
"I took care of it," Sun said as she sealed the way behind her.  
  
"Good," Moon responded.  
  
"Now what do we do?" Jupiter asked.  
  
Each girl contemplated the question for the briefest of moments before the room exploded with chatter as each girl tried to suggest what they thought at the same time. Some voices were getting louder in an effort to be heard, others paired off into side conversations, ignored their surroundings.  
  
Sailor Moon somehow brought the room into order, "We protect the Earth until the Moon Kingdom rises - then we'll see."  
  
Pluto was strangely quiet during the inopportune brainstorming session. She stood near the Gates, eyeing Sun. Returning the look with a raised eyebrow, Sun strolled over directly in front of Pluto.  
  
"You don't trust me?" Sun asked Pluto coldly.  
  
"No... I don't," came the stern reply. "I don't trust you because there is nothing to keep you check. You are... too powerful to be trusted."  
  
"Pluto," Venus exclaimed. "You are in no position to say that about Sun, especially after what you tried to pull."  
  
"I was doing what I thought was best with the situation at the time," Pluto said defensively. "I have been working by myself for thousands of years, you have no right to judge me!"  
  
"Yet you decided to judge Sun," Moon stated.  
  
Pluto's anger and frustration flared inside her. Her emotions, long held in check, rushed to the surface.  
  
"You have no idea what you are talking about!" she snapped as the group of girls took an involuntary step back.  
  
"I watched over and protected this Earth over the millenniums while waiting for you to be reborn! And I had to do it alone, by myself - do you have any concept of how... overpowering lonely I was? Do you know what its like to... to... have to watch and never be a part of humanity? Do you? Do you?!"  
  
The Scouts, shocked by Pluto's emotional outburst, stood in stunned silence.  
  
"I saw... a chance to shorten the time... and I took it," Pluto said quietly, head bowed and breathing raggedly. She then raised her head and looked at the Senshi in the eyes, "Wouldn't you?"  
  
"But the cost is too high," Moon said. "Especially if we can prevent it."  
  
"And what are we going to do about the next major threat?" Pluto asked while eyeing Sun.  
  
"Do you know for sure that Sun is a threat?" Mars asked pointedly.  
  
"I can't see what see does or doesn't do, so - no -I can't truly answer that, "Pluto said quietly. "But - throughout history I've seen power corrupt and control the very people that suppose to control it. I said it before 'absolute power corrupts absolutely' - and there is no greater example of absolute power than Sailor Sun."  
  
All was quiet.  
  
"For what it's worth Pluto, I understand why you think the way you do," Sun spoke, breaking the silence.  
  
"You do?" Pluto responded in genuine surprise mixed with suspicion.  
  
"Yes," Sun confirmed while shrugging her shoulders. "I can understand why you feel the way you do. You explained what you witnessed over the course of history and... you're right. Someone with as much power as I have shouldn't be allowed to exist. Why I was made so... ridiculously powerful is beyond me."  
  
The other Scouts in the room looked at Sun as if she grown another head. Knowing how Ranma's life had been and what she had been though, it wouldn't be entirely unexpected.  
  
"Wh... what do you mean?" Venus asked.  
  
"I meant what I said," Sun stated. "I understand where Pluto coming from... and... I forgive her. I understand why she would be afraid. If I were her, I would be afraid too."  
  
A pin could be heard if it dropped, if one was available.  
  
Sun sighed, "Look guys, I was angry at her until I started thinking about... someone like me. How would you control someone like me? How would you deal with a threat as big as me?"  
  
"Sun... Ranma... you're not a threat. I know you wouldn't do anything amoral," Moon said assuredly.  
  
"How do you know? You know next to nothing about me and if I started to go bad, how would you stop me? Would there be any way to stop me?"  
  
The others looked at one another, seriously thinking the question over before returning their gaze on Sun. Sun could swear she could hear her heart beating. Moon glided up to her, placed a hand on each of her shoulders, drawing Sun's eyes into hers.  
  
"I believe in you," Moon stated softly.  
  
Though Sun was comforted by the reassurance that washed over her from Moon, but self doubt reared its head and she replied just as softly, "I wished I could believe in myself."  
  
Moon embraced Sun in a gentle hug, which Sun returned hesitantly. All was quiet for a moment.  
  
"Is there anyway for Pluto to keep tabs on Sun?" Mercury suggested. "Would that help alleviate any of your fears?"  
  
"Yes, I would feel better about it," Pluto said while nodding. "If I could see what she does in the future, but she was made to evade all forms of detection. There is no way for me to use the Gates to track Sun.."  
  
Sun, still being held by Moon was furrowing her brow, trying to remember of something. _"A dream... a balcony... a test. Flying in the air... no before that, what? He handed me something... what was it? Where did he get it? Where did he...Yes!... I think I know!"  
  
_"There's a way, I think," Sun whispered quietly, but loud enough for all to hear.  
  
Moon, who was still holding Sun, leaned back to see her face, "Really?"  
  
"Yes..." Sun nodded while looking about the faces of the others, "I think so. Let me check something."  
  
Sun stepped back and disengaging herself from Moon. She summoned her sword and cut a path to parts unknown and disappeared.  
  
"Where'd the heck she go now?" Mars asked, slightly irritated.  
  
---------------  
  
The Moon.  
  
Its gray, colorless surface contrasted to the palace, still impressive even in ruins.  
  
Underneath the ruins of the palace, Sun using her feelings more than her memories, was digging through the rubble that once was a lab. She hoped it was The Lab. Time and decay had played their part and she was not very sure about where in the sub-basements of the palace she was. She hated relying on her half forgotten dreams and memories for guidance, but it was all she had at this point and she just had to make do.  
  
Examining her surroundings, Sun had a fairly good... idea, if you could call it that, where she was and what she was looking for. There were a few signs she was in the right area, but half forgotten dreams didn't exactly inspire confidence. Oversize equipment, like the insides of some giant radio tubes from the nineteen forties, dominated one wall. Between the giant tubes were clear cylinders, big enough for a human being to be encased in was connected by the remnants of copper-like tubing that ran up through to the ceiling.  
  
There were twelve of them.  
  
Sun trembled as if she was cold.  
  
_"I feel like I'm in a cemetery or a forgotten shrine or something,"_ she thought as the place gave her the creeps.  
  
For an instant her imagination, or was it memory, ran away with her. Phantom shapes moved among the equipment and around the room. She could almost feel the place throb with hidden energies, swirling into the tubes.  
  
The tubes.  
  
_"Infusion tubes, _" Ranma though. _"That's what they are. This is where I was, where we were... made."_  
  
That stirred a thought that Sun decided to ignored for the moment as she returned to the task at hand. Forgetting the equipment and her feelings about them, Sun moved around the room searching one cubby hole to the next.  
  
_"It has to be around here somewhere,"_ she thought to herself.  
  
She moved the rubble that had laid undisturbed for thousands of years, lifting, moving and examining everything that caught her interest. There was much moon dust that had worked its way into the depths of the palace, that she was kicking up plumes of it in her search. So much so, that it got in the way at times.  
  
_"Where is it?"_ She thought frantically, fearing the feelings and vague memories would escape before she could capitalize on them.  
  
She searched under the larger chunks, shifted the smaller bits and raked her fingers through the lunar dust that coated the floor, in some places thickly. She continued on and didn't stop to take in anymore of her surroundings as she concentrated and hoped her search would bear fruit. She was about to move onto another room when a familiar object caught her eye, half buried in the Lunar dust. Scrambling for it, she grabbed and held it up in triumph.  
  
An object from a dream.  
  
A bracelet. A very nondescript bracelet.  
  
-----------------  
  
"Let's try this," Sun said as she reentered the Gates.  
  
"What is it?" Mercury asked.  
  
"If I recall my dreams correctly," Sun said as she sealed the rift behind her, "it is a tracking and recording instrument."  
  
She approached the group and held the simple bracelet before her.  
  
"I am not sure how it works, but I am pretty sure that the Gates of Time should be able to 'tune' in to it."  
  
"Let's see," Mercury said as she held out a hand. Sun passed the object onto Mercury as Mercury brought out her computer. The other girls gathered around.  
  
"Where did you find it?" Jupiter asked.  
  
"It was buried in the ruins of the lab," Sun answered.  
  
"Lab?" Jupiter and Venus asked simultaneously.  
  
"Yes. The lab under the palace. Well, one of the labs. Where we, ah, were... created," Sun said, the last softly.  
  
The group stopped examining the ancient artifact and stared as one at Sun. Sun for her part was too preoccupied with her own thoughts to really notice. Sun had one hand out and was ticking off each finger as she was mentally counting something. Mercury quickly returned to scanning the bracelet, narrowing down how it functioned.  
  
"I think she's right," Mercury said while turning the object around in her hand while hole her computer with the other. "According to the records on file this was, or is, a space/time tracker. It has a whole lot of specs here I don't really understand, but it should work as Sun said."  
  
Turning the bracelet over with her free hand, Mercury studied it closely.  
  
"How do you put it on?" she asked as she realized that the bracelet had no seams or latch and would be too snug to fit over Sun's hand.  
  
Sun reached with her hand, taking the bracelet back. With a move that displayed both practice and unconscious effort, she snapped the bracelet around her left wrist. She held it up for all to see.  
  
Mercury scanned the bracelet and announced, "Yes. My scan shows that something is happening.... no, wait. It dropped off - I'm not getting anything anymore. Pluto see if you can see anything."  
  
Pluto used her staff and directed her attention to the Gates of Time. The image coming through the Gates was soft and out of focused. Pluto made an adjustment with her staff, the pictured sharpened to reveal Sun standing among the other Scouts in the room. The image came from a third point of view and not from the angle that the bracelet was being worn.  
  
"How can that be?" Mercury exclaimed as she noticed the picture. She then moved around the room until her line of sight matched the image from the Gates.  
  
"The picture is coming from here, but you're over there," she said while pointing to Sun. Sun just shrugged her shoulders.  
  
"I know how to wear it - not how it works," was Sun's reply to Mercury's confusion.  
  
Turning her attention to Pluto, "Does this help?"  
  
Pluto nodded slightly, "A little. But there is still the matter of how are we going to keep you in check."  
  
"How do the rest of you keep each other in check?" Sun asked.  
  
The girls looked at one another.  
  
"We... really don't. We... just do what's right... for love and justice," Moon said.  
  
"Love... and... justice," Sun echoed quietly.  
  
Sun thought about this deeply before asking, "What is moral? Or, what do you consider moral?"  
  
"What do you mean?" asked Uranus, after staying in the background with Neptune and Saturn.  
  
"I mean what code of ethics do we follow? How do we morally apply our power? What rules do you use as a guide?" Sun rattled off.  
  
"Sun... Ranma," Mercury started, herself groping for words. "We don't really have a 'code' per say. We protect this world from evil, like the Negaverse... we follow what's in our hearts."  
  
Sun blinked at that.  
  
"Our hearts?"  
  
"Love and justice are not just words, they mean something and we carry that meaning in our hearts," Moon said. 'It's in your heart too. I'm sure of it, or you wouldn't be feeling so much pain from yesterday."  
  
Sun blanched a little from the reminder of previous days events. After a moment of silence she asked, "So, what do we do?"  
  
Moon looked at her Senshi before answering, "We will protect this world from any threats. There is a lot we could do to help move the world along to a more peaceful path..." shooting a look at Pluto, "and even more we shouldn't do."  
  
"She was doing what she thought was right," Sun said in Pluto's defense.  
  
"Yes, that's true," Moon agreed. "But she is not in a situation that is... healthy for her, and we must do what we can to help her."  
  
"I don't know..." Pluto began before lapsing into silence.  
  
"Is there anyway for you to monitor the Gates when you're not here?" Mercury prompted.  
  
Pluto though before answering, "Yes. There are many ways to monitor the Gates remotely. I rarely do because... I fear something might happen."  
  
"Paranoid? Lonely?" Mercury sighed. "Those are not good things to carry around."  
  
"And you have us," Neptune interject as she indicated the others in the room. "There is no reason to keep yourself apart from us."  
  
"I don't know...," Pluto began, uncertain.  
  
"Your going to have to do something," Mars said.  
  
"Could you at least try?" Moon said. "At least try to join the rest of the human race."  
  
"I..." Pluto began before falling under the attack of Usagi's puppy dog eyes of persuasion. She sighed and wilted. "Okay. I'll try."  
  
Which, of course, was followed by a patented Usagi's Super Glomp.  
  
------------------  
  
Ranma said a quiet goodbye to Ami and Usagi as they separated at the intersection that lead to her home. It had been a long evening and Ranma felt bad in a way. It was cool enough that her breath showed when she breathed. She felt tired and worn.  
  
She fingered the new addition around her left wrist with her right hand absently as she walked home. She noticed the night sky, looking at the stars that managed to shine through the urban haze that always hovered over the city.  
  
She was relieved that what could have been a disaster turned into a productive meeting.  
  
Unlocking the door, Ranma entered the restaurant that was her home. The dimly lit dinning room greeted her...  
  
... and Michiko.  
  
Ranma blinked a few times before saying anything.  
  
"Ah... sis?" Ranma asked nervously. "What's, ah, up?".  
  
"Just... worried about you and thought I would wait up for you," Michiko said pensively. "Are you okay?"  
  
Ranma stared at Michiko for what seemed like a long moment before answering.  
  
"I'm better. I can't say that I'm fine... but I'm better. I went up to the temple on the hill and... talked to the shrine maiden there." Ranma didn't like to lie, so she bent the truth a bit.  
  
Michiko smiled warmly, "Do you feel better for it?"  
  
Ranma nodded slowly before answering.  
  
"A little," she answered. "Yesterday was just... too much," she finished with a tired sigh.  
  
"I'm sorry, Ranma," Michiko said softly. "Granny told me... told me what happened. I just want you to know if you need anything, I'll be happy to help you."  
  
Ranma looked into the hazel eye of Michiko and felt the same calmness she did when she looked into Akiko's eyes.  
  
"Thanks, sis," she worked out with a trace of a smile. "That really means a lot to me."  
  
As late as it was, the two girls chatted softly as they headed upstairs.  
  
------------------  
  
Ranma woke what was very late for her the next morning, still stiff and sore from the weekend. The weekend. How two days could seem like two months she'd never know. As she sat up in her futon, she still felt tired and fatigued by her ordeals. Waitressing, battling the Protectors, wrestling with her feelings of guilt and then dealing with Pluto - all within the last forty-eight hours. A busy, emotional and physically draining weekend.  
  
At least in school she could relax a bit. No, wait. She wanted to meet with the guidance counselor about ideas on what she should do with her life.  
  
Sigh.  
  
_"No nightmares at least, thank god,"_ she thought as she stretched her arms outward.  
  
Ranma stretched and rolled up her futon. Not in the mood, she forgone her usual practice session and took a quick bath before padding downstairs. Akiko was up as usual, putting around the downstairs.  
  
"Good morning, Granny," Ranma called out.  
  
"Good morning, Ranma. Did you sleep well?" she asked with a smile.  
  
"Yeah - I mean yes, thank you," Ranma answered. "No dreams... no nightmares."  
  
Akiko regarded Ranma for the briefest of instants before stating, "The school is closed for the day due to what happened. I've decided to keep the restaurant closed for the day as well. After this past weekend, I feel everyone needs a break."  
  
"Yeah... I mean, that is, yes. That would be great." Ranma replied.  
  
"I think you should look at the morning newspaper," Akiko said with a hint of nervousness while waving a hand toward a table. "I don't think it's really anything to worry about, but you should be aware of what's going on."  
  
Ranma walked up to the indicated table with the thick newspaper atop it.  
  
'Government to Investigate Senshi' the headline practically screamed. Other sub-headlines were 'Heroes or Threats?' and 'Sailor Scouts: Government Cover-up?'.  
  
Not a good way to start the day.  
  
"Crap," Ranma said flatly.  
  
"Language," Akiko gently chided.  
  
"Sorry Granny," Ranma said sheepishly. "But... aw, pooh - what I'm I going to do?"  
  
"I would think not much. After all no one knows who you are... I wouldn't worry too much unless you get careless. I pointed it out because you should be aware of it."  
  
Ranma thought about that. Akiko was right. If she didn't do anything really stupid, she shouldn't worry about it. After all, there was nothing to connect her to the Senshi.  
  
---------------------  
  
Time passed...  
  
Ranma was seventeen now...  
  
Chiyo, Michiko and Ami took Ranma out to do a little shopping on her birthday. she picked up a few silk shirts and pants that she favored and, at Michiko's insistence, a nice thigh length, charcoal colored skirt. Outside her Senshi uniform, Ranma never cared for skirts. She had to admit however, that this one did show off her legs well.  
  
As Ranma discovered as she opened the door to her home and entered followed by her sister and friends.  
  
"SURPRISE!" The room exploded.  
  
"EEEK!" Ranma shrieked and jumped straight up.  
  
The room fell into silence as everyone in the room froze and looked upon Ranma as she clung to the rafters of the ceiling. Ranma blink-blinked at the crowd below as they did the same to her. The tableau lasted all of thirty seconds before laughter invaded the room.  
  
A slightly embarrassed Ranma dropped to the floor and joined in the feeling that permeated the room by giggling at her own reaction. Surrounded by her friends and family, she realized what was happening.  
  
A party.  
  
A birthday party...  
  
... complete with uncle Shojo's karaoke machine.  
  
For her.  
  
All her friends and family were there to celebrate it with her.  
  
Growing up with Genma, Ranma never celebrated anything. She didn't even partake any festival or celebration. Instead of seven-five-three festival, Ranma got cat fist training, instead of New Year's, Ranma got dragged from one dojo to another. Instead of a birthday, Ranma got sold to another fiance for food or whatever caught Genma's fancy at the time.  
  
The surprise birthday party was emotionally overwhelming for her. So much that it was the first time in her life she remembered crying because she was happy.  
  
----------------------  
  
Time passed...  
  
Ranma was pleased how well the Scouts had integrated with the friends she already had and not displaced anyone already close to her. This was important to Ranma. Not having any real friends before coming to Juuban she desired to keep any she did have.  
  
Rei was still a pain and sometimes, between the two of them, they would amuse the others with their antics. Ranma only barely caught something about the way it reminded them of how Rei used to act toward Usagi. Of course, whenever she asked Usagi or Rei, they would claimed not to know what the others were talking about.  
  
Ranma often wondered herself, but when she did asked any of the others, she wouldn't get any real answers. Mainly because of the giggles the subject seem to spawn.  
  
Early one December morning, Ranma, Rei, Michiko, Usagi, Makoto and Minako were walking toward the arcade for some warm drinks. Winter was firmly in place as the thin layer of fresh snow that covered the sidewalk crunched underfoot with each step. The sky was dominated by the gray of winter as the procession made their way down the avenue.  
  
It had been an interesting morning as Ranma demonstrated part of her morning routine to her friends in the courtyard of the Cherry Hill Shrine. It became more interesting as Rei attempted to do some of the simpler katas that Ranma performed - on a dare.  
  
She was still limping from her effort.  
  
Rei's grumbling is what lead herself and Ranma becoming involved in what was becoming a 'typical discussion' for the pair.  
  
"Why are you such a pain?" Ranma asked as she walked beside the raven haired girl. With each breath she was sending fog into the air. "I went easy on you, it's not like I went all out or anything."  
  
"A pain?!" Rei griped loudly. "I'm in pain! I'm not the one who thinks doing katas for hours in the freezing cold is a fun way to 'spend a morning'."  
  
Rei vowed to herself never to do anything this stupid on a dare again.  
  
Michiko and Makoto, who were directly behind the arguing pair, rolled their eyes along with Minako, Usagi and Ami who were behind them.  
  
"It wasn't even one hour, not hours and you wouldn't be complaining if you weren't so out of shape," Ranma stated flatly.  
  
"Out of shape! There's nothing wrong with me! I'm in fine shape," Rei groused loudly.  
  
Ranma snorted and muttered, "Yeah, right."  
  
Rei fumed as she took a side long glance at the redhead. With a sly grin, she shot out while motioning to Ranma's ample bust, "The only reason you're so strong is that you carry all that extra weight with you all the time."  
  
Ranma looked stunned for a second before her eyes narrowed, "You're just jealous because you're built like a brick..."  
  
"Whaaat," Rei shrieked. "I'm not -", she began her retort, only to be cut off as Ranma continued.  
  
"... and not to mention flat as a board."  
  
"Grrrr... Listen you over endowed bimbo ...," Rei grounded out.  
  
"Bimbo!" Ranma shrieked in indignation, sounding not too unlike Rei seconds before. She stopped and faced her irritating friend, with hands on hips.  
  
"I maybe many things, but a bimbo is not one of them!" Ranma declared.  
  
"Only a bimbo would try to scam free treats like so," Rei said with sugary sweetness dripping from her voice, clasping her hands together by her cheek, widening her eyes in puppy-dog mode and batting them.  
  
All in all, a very good imitation of Ranma.  
  
Ranma had the decency to look embarrassed. Blushing and stammering, "I, ah... I... ah... ju... just because I can scam a few boys doesn't mean..."  
  
"Well you surely dress like one," Rei added smugly, feeling like she had the upper hand. "If that sweater were any tighter, you'd be wearing it on the inside."  
  
Ranma's mouth gapped open before a smile crossed her lips.  
  
"It just looks good on me," Ranma tittered while striking a pose that accentuated her figure, causing a young man across the street to walk into a light pole. "It was a birthday present from Tamami and I fill it out..."  
  
Rei snorted as Ranma continued, still tittering.  
  
"... unlike a certain uncute shrine maiden who can cuss like a sailor..."  
  
"Uncute!" Rei roared.  
  
Makoto turned to the girls behind her while Ranma and Rei continued their verbal spar.  
  
"Do they remind you of anyone?" she asked Usagi.  
  
Looking at the spectacle before her, Usagi always wondered why the others asked her that every time Ranma and Rei got into it. Never the less, she pondered the question before answering, "No. No one in particular."  
  
The words, "macho" and "floozie" were exchanged at that point, as Mounts Ranma and Rei threatened to blow.  
  
Makoto whispered a quick explanation into Michiko's ear. Michiko grinned at the summary of events while eyeing Usagi and began giggling. Usagi's eye twitched subtly.  
  
"Are you sure?" Ami asked Usagi, smiling all the while.  
  
Usagi's brow furrowed in thought before she shook her head, sending her hair flying as she did so. More words in the background, "patron saint of tomboys" and "bimbo-zilla" flew by.  
  
"I think they like each other, or they wouldn't be arguing so," Ami added as Usagi's eyebrow twitched some more as she caught on - vaguely.  
  
Any further conversation was interrupted by two loud "nyaah's". Ranma and Rei, almost nose to nose, giving each other 'raspberries'. Ranma adding two of her fingers on each side of her mouth, stretching it sideways while sticking her tongue out. Rei, her tongue out also, pulled down one eyelid with a finger. Both girls held that pose for a few seconds...  
  
... looked at each other in the eyes,...  
  
... blinked,...  
  
... and burst into a fit of giggles.  
  
Overall, a pretty good morning.  
  
--------------  
  
Makoto was inspired. Soon after the demonstration, she practically begged Ranma to teach her some of her moves.  
  
Ranma tested Makoto's skill level.  
  
"What martial arts background do you have?' Ranma asked.  
  
"I know karate, Makoto replied.  
  
"Okay, let's see how good you are."  
  
After a short sparing session Ranma sat down where Makoto was already sitting, after being thrown. Leaning with her back against the wall, Ranma began her discussion on Makoto's abilities.  
  
"I can tell a guy taught you how to fight," Ranma commented after the sparing match.  
  
"How?"  
  
"The way you handle yourself in a fight. Women have different capabilities than men do. Believe me I have first hand experience in the differences," Ranma explained. "Trying to fight like a guy when you're a girl isn't a good idea."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Well, guys are bigger and stronger than women - not to mention demons, Chinese Dragon Princes, Protectors or any other assorted weirdness."  
  
Ranma took a breath before continuing.  
  
"That means, unless you've had a lot of strength training, you shouldn't block. Guys can take hits that will bring a girl down. Girls have a bit more agility, so concentrate on dodging. Also you tend to focus on kicking, which many male instructors teach their female students. It seems natural since your legs are stronger than your arms, but most combat will probably take place in closer quarters."  
  
Makoto nodded.  
  
"This is good if your attacker is within your kicking range," Ranma paused. "If our sparring match is any indication, if an attacker gets inside, too close for you to use kicks, you limit yourself by the number of moves that you have."  
  
"What should I do?" Makoto asked.  
  
"We need to build your strength up," Ranma said firmly. "More than it already has. This will help you deal with taking a hit if it comes to that - also we'll work on the strength of your hands. "  
  
"My hands?" Makoto asked while looking questionably at said appendages.  
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
"You'll be surprised how strong hands comes in handy for pinching a nerve or poking a pressure point. Also striking with strong fingers can do much more damage than a fist."  
  
"Can you train me? Or at least help me improve on what I know?" Makoto asked.  
  
"Sure," Ranma replied happily. Then, while rubbing her chin in thought, added with a touch of mirth, "To really bring you up to speed though, I might have to toss you into a pit of starving cats wrapped in fish sausage."  
  
"Ah... ah... ah..." Makoto said while starting to big sweat.  
  
Ranma stared at the frozen girl before giggling.  
  
"I'm joking!" Ranma said, breaking Makoto from her thoughts of hungry felines.  
  
"Let's start with something simple," Ranma said while standing. "This is a kata that I first learned when I was seven. You start with..."  
  
Time passed...  
  
So every morning since then, Makoto would show up early at the restaurant before school, help rearrange the dining room and Ranma would teach her martial arts. It was a challenge for Ranma, learning how to teach and not use the insane methods that Genma used. Ranma started with working on Makoto's balance and speed.  
  
"No, not like that. Like this," Ranma said as she corrected Makoto's stance.  
  
Makoto followed Ranma's lead.  
  
"You see, this way you can defend yourself if your attacker comes in low, like at your gut, or you can make it offensive if he comes in high," Ranma explained.  
  
Makoto asked, "What if the guy is too big to block in this stance?"  
  
"Then you use speed to dodge and outflank him, like so."  
  
Makoto moved in the way indicated.  
  
"You would have to be pretty fast to do that," she stated.  
  
"Yup. But it is possible, like so." Ranma blurred.  
  
"Wow. How did you do that?" Makoto asked after reeling her jaw in.  
  
"Practice. Training. Then more practice and training," Ranma said with a smile.  
  
"It's something called 'Chestnuts Roasting On a Open Fire'. I can teach it without the fire though - I learned it by pulling fish out of a fish tank without getting wet. It will take awhile for you to build up the speed and you'll have to build up your ki to help you. This will take awhile, but in the meantime it is a great exercise to help you develop speed and ki. Interested?"  
  
Makoto nodded in affirmation as she followed the redhead.  
  
-----------------  
  
Time passed...  
  
Ranma talked with Haruka and Michiru. Setsuna took Hotaru out for a while affording the girls some privacy to talk. It was awkward for the first twenty minutes, but after that they all started to relax.  
  
After talking for about an hour and a half, they decided to leave the past where it was for the time being. They all left it open ended though. If their memories returned to a point that things changed - then they'd see what happens.  
  
Ranma was a little saddened by this for some reason that she didn't really understand. But in the end, thought that perhaps it was best to let the past be left in the past.  
  
---------------  
  
Time passed...  
  
Two a.m. on the roof of Ranma's home.  
  
Happosai decided to pay a visit. The only thing that Ranma objected to was the lateness of the hour.  
  
"Okay. Talk," Ranma said while crossing her arms under her breasts. The Grandmaster of Anything goes looked nervously around him in the dim light. Ranma was at ease, she detected no one else on the or any of the surrounding rooftops. They were alone.  
  
"Yes. well.... you see...," Happosai stuttered.  
  
Ranma raised an eyebrow and continued her examination of the diminutive martial artist master.  
  
"Yes-s?" Ranma drawled out.  
  
"I think we've found a way to satisfy your - request," Happosai said worriedly.  
  
"Oh?" Ranma answered while raising the other eyebrow.  
  
"Yes, you see we've adapted a variation of the..." and Happosai continued his lengthy explanation of how the Anything goes school proposal to change the testing requirements for its possible masters.  
  
Later...  
  
"It's sounds pretty complicated... are you sure there is nothing easier?" Ranma yawned.  
  
Happosai eyed Ranma and snorted, "You got any helpful suggestions?"  
  
Ranma thought for a moment before replying.  
  
"Er... no. No, not really," Ranma admitted.  
  
"Then we're in agreement?" Happosai asked hopefully.  
  
Ranma thought a moment before concluding, _"Oh, what the hell."_  
  
"Okay... but no funny stuff. Got it?" Ranma said sternly while wagging a finger toward the smaller person.  
  
Happosai nodded quickly and enthusiastically. "No funny stuff, gotcha. Um, can we have the library back now, please?" he asked.  
  
"Yes," Ranma said tiredly while yawning again. _"Why do all these conversations always seem to happen in the middle of the night?"_ she thought.  
  
"Two days from now. The same roof top as last time - say about say 11:30 at night," she then added.  
  
"Great. We'll see you there. One question," Happosai looked at Ranma in the dim light of the rooftop. "How did you manage to do what you did? We talked about it and haven't been able to figure it out."  
  
Ranma gave Happosai a guarded look before answering.  
  
"I can't tell you. If it was just me - it would be different, but other people are involved and I can't say anything. I promised."  
  
Happosai looked at the young women and sighed.  
  
"Okay. It's fine with me. You have always been good at trying to keep your promises unlike some people I know. I won't ask again."  
  
Ranma nodded as she yawned from the lateness of the night.  
  
"Anything else?"  
  
Happosai shook his head.  
  
"Okay then. I'll see you in two nights," Ranma said while leaping down from the roof.  
  
------------  
  
Time passed...  
  
Ranma was uneasy.  
  
Two days ago an "investigating government agent" showed up as she returned from school. Asking all sorts of questions. Awkward questions.  
  
Questions about Ranma, and why 'he' was a 'she'.  
  
And about the Senshi.  
  
When Akiko showed her the paper, she didn't think she had anything to worry about in the government's investigation into the Senshi. She didn't stop to think at the time, that being picked up by the JDF troops in the cordon off area after the fight would cause her problems. Problems like why she was where she was and how she got there.  
  
It took a while, but she managed to convince him that she was ignorant.  
  
She was very glad that it was over with, but the nervousness of the event lingered.  
  
------------  
  
Time passed...  
  
Outside the was snow still on the ground.  
  
Inside it was busy. Very busy.  
  
New Years.  
  
Ring out the old. Ring in the new.  
  
Seventeen year old Ranma found herself working in the back helping Akiko and Yoshi cleaning up the kitchen area after hard use. Up front, Michiko, Hitomi and Makoto (who was helping out, and earning some money on the side), were politely ushering the last of the customers out the door as they prepared to close for the night.  
  
As Ranma scrubbed a particularly stubborn pot, she had time to think about the coming year and reflected on the waning one. Her life had changed over the last three months, since the "Battle of Juuban', as one newspaper put it. Her nightmares lessened, but had not gone away completely. She had moved from sleeping on the living room floor to sharing Michiko's room. It was an unexpected and welcome change.  
  
It helped her to have someone nearby when Ranma did have nightmares, it was comforting. Michiko always was there to help Ranma when she needed it to get through the night. It was nice to have someone to talk to at the drop of a hat if you wanted or needed to. Of course, Akiko had to threaten to separate them if they "didn't stop gabbing all night". After the third reprimand, Michiko and her kept their 'gab time' to a reasonable hour.  
  
In a few more hours after they had, cleaned up and changed, they would all go to the Cherry Hill Temple around midnight. They would stay as Rei's grandfather struck the temple bell 108 times. The bell would toll 108 times so the new year would be free of evil.  
  
After scrubbing, drying and putting the pots away, Ranma went up front to help clean the dining area. Michiko and Makoto were busy mopping the floor and Hitomi was arranging the chairs on top of the tables. Ranma's eye was drawn to the decoration of pine branches, bamboo and straw that adorned the stairwell that lead up to the Yonai home for luck in the coming year.  
  
"You need any help?" Ranma called out.  
  
"I think we got it," Michiko answered as Makoto nodded.  
  
Akiko and Yoshi came to the front and they looked around with some satisfaction.  
  
Turning to Akiko, "If you don't need me," Yoshi said, "I'll be getting home and meet all of you at the temple."  
  
"That would be fine, dear. I'll see you there," she replied.  
  
Crossing the floor together, Akiko let her son out and adjusted the decoration made up of corn husks. The one over the stairwell was for luck in their home life, this one was for luck in their business.  
  
"Is there anything else?" Makoto asked as she placed the mop into the nearby bucket.  
  
Looking around, Akiko appraised the results of the young girls labor and answered her with a smile.  
  
"No, dear. I think you did quite well. It is close enough to the weekend and we won't be open tomorrow. Let me figure up and give you and Hitomi your paychecks and then we'll see you up at the shrine."  
  
Makoto bowed and carried hers and Michiko's cleaning supplies into the kitchen.  
  
-----------------  
  
Time passed...  
  
Happosai was training her.  
  
Ranma picked herself off the ground and spit out some snow, dirt and grass that got into in her mouth. Using a fingernail, she dug a few blades of dead grass that had gotten lodged between her teeth.  
  
_"Little freak. How in the hell did he do that?" _she thought bitterly. If she wasn't having such a good time she would be very pissed right now.  
  
She had resolved that in her sparing with Happosai, that she would do it without tapping into her Senshi abilities. She found suppressing them surprisingly easy since it was like controlling her ki, just slightly different. Ranma realized during the 'Battle of Juuban' how dependent she had become on her Senshi abilities to carry her in a fight (even untransformed) and was focused on changing that.  
  
She had lost her edge and was determined to get it back.  
  
Having it rubbed in your face like Happosai was doing was downright humiliating though.  
  
"Now then, did you see what I did?" Happosai asked the young women sagely as she finished cleaning the debris off her face.  
  
Ranma thought deeply. She was going in high with a punch to distract Happosai from the real attack, which was meant to be a leg sweep. Happosai just stood there and blocked the punch as expected and suddenly, the next thing she knew, she was flying through the air and face planted into the ground.  
  
But there was something else. Something his did with his other hand...  
  
"I'm not sure... it's like... I don't know. It's like you used a little of your ki to... do something," answered Ranma, mostly to herself.  
  
"Very good. It was something taught to me by my Master. It is called the 'Way of the Pebble'," Happosai said solemy.  
  
"The Way of the Pebble?" Ranma asked, puzzled.  
  
Happosai brought out his pipe, lit it and took a few puffs before continuing.  
  
"You know of the breaking point from the Amazons?" Happosai asked, exhaling a cloud of smoke as he did so.  
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
"Well, there's more to it than the Amazons lead you to believe. More to it than the Amazons know to use," Happosai took a drag from his pipe. "I take they gave some nonsense about how it was used by quarry men or miners to break up rock?"  
  
Ranma nodded.  
  
Happosai snorted. "Well let me tell you this, it was developed over five thousand years ago by the Anything Goes Master Korg. He named it the "Way of the Pebble". An Amazon stole a copy of one of the scrolls for the technique from Master Hue, a half completed scroll at that, so they didn't get the whole record of how it's done."  
  
Ranma just stared at Happosai as if he just turned into the Pope or something. She swallowed, furrowed her brow and asked, "They stole it?"  
  
Happosai nodded.  
  
"Yes. You will find that many of their "secret styles" are mostly stolen from other sources," Happosai paused for another drag from his pipe. "Their 'Chestnuts Roasting in an Open Fire'" is just a poor imitation of the 'Fists of Fire' and the later 'Fists of Lightning' that were developed long before there were any Amazons."  
  
Ranma stood there considering the implications of what he said before turning back to what Happosai had just demonstrated.  
  
"What exactly is the 'The Way of the Pebble'?" Ranma asked, her curiosity peeked.  
  
"It is a Martial Arts technique where the smallest of actions lead to greatest of results," Happosai said with great reverence. "Think of it as the 'Breaking Point' times ten, but there is more to it than that. It can effect non-living and to a lesser effect, living things. It is a very powerful style."  
  
"What did you do to me when I attacked?" Ranma asked.  
  
Happosai grinned.  
  
"To you nothing, to the ground beneath you - I removed some dirt under your left foot - your heel to be exact - at just the right time when you were trying to kick me with your right. By the way, you have to work on making your moves less readable, I saw them a mile away and them some," Happosai finished by puffing on his pipe.  
  
Ranma just stared at him, left eyebrow twitching.  
  
"Let me get this straight. You just removed some dirt from under my foot and that left me fifteen feet away, face down in the ground?" she asked in an exasperated tone.  
  
Happosai shook his head, still smiling.  
  
"No not some dirt. I would say, about this much," he said while opening his hand and displaying a few crumbs of dirt in his palm.  
  
"I don't believe it."  
  
"Have I ever lied to you..."  
  
Ranma snorted, raised an eyebrow and gave a very unamused look at the Martial Artist Master.  
  
"... lately?" Happosai finished in a deadpan sort of way.  
  
Ranma sighed in resignation before moving on, "Why is it called the 'Way of the Pebble'?"  
  
"That goes back to when the technique was first developed," Happosai explained. " As my old Master Hue, told me, Master Korg apparently caused a mountain to crumble into the sea by removing a pebble."  
  
Ranma stared dumbly at Happosai.  
  
"The trick you see, " Happosai continued, "is knowing how to find the pebble, the right moment to remove it and how to remove it."  
  
Ranma continued to stand there and stare dumbly at Happosai as he puffed away at his pipe.  
  
"That has to be the biggest load of..." she shook her head. "I don't believe it."  
  
Happosai raised an eyebrow. "Care for another crack, my girl?"  
  
Ranma smiled in a predatory way and answered, "Why not."  
  
Later...  
  
After spiting another mouthful of snow and grass out for the forth time that evening, Ranma sat upright and said, "Alright! I believe you already."  
  
Happosai chuckled in an amusement.  
  
"Okay," Ranma asked in exasperation. "How does this work?"  
  
Happosai, already having his pipe out while Ranma was cleaning her mouth out, answered with a touch of whimsy in his voice.  
  
"Everything that exists has a frequency - everything has a... resonance if you will. A certain vibration that all the energy that makes up matter has."  
  
Ranma, sitting cross legged on the snow cover ground, paid rapt attention to the aging Martial Arts Master as he continued.  
  
"I'm sure you have heard of Opera singers shattering glass with the pitch of their voice?" Happosai puffed away at his pipe.  
  
Ranma hesitated for a second before nodding once.  
  
"Well this technique works on the same principle, but much more refined. Instead of sound, I use my ki. By altering the frequency of my ki, I can manipulate matter and move it around."  
  
"And the 'Way of the Pebble?" Ranma asked.  
  
"Is a way of finding the 'linchpin', the 'keystone', the very foundation of what holds an object together," Happosai paused for a drag from his pipe, "... and moving it."  
  
"And this works on living beings, too?" Ranma asked, paling a bit and feeling uneasy all of a sudden.  
  
Happosai nodded while exhaling smoke, "Yes, to a lesser degree. The more solid an object the better it works. Living creatures are not a solid as mountains."  
  
"So it does have limits," Ranma stated.  
  
Happosai sighed.  
  
"Ranma, my girl, everything has limits. No matter what - and there are other limits to this technique though."  
  
"And what are they?" Ranma asked while standing. The ground was, after all, freezing.  
  
"It is limited by the amount the practitioners ki. The greater the ki the greater the distance."  
  
"How far can you... attack from?"  
  
"With my ki as it is, I am limited to about - oh two, three feet."  
  
"Two or three feet? With as much ki as you have? How much ki does this thing take? And how come I didn't sense you using it?"  
  
"It takes ki to find the pebble, and once found, it take ki to take the pebble. Everything in this takes ki. The more ki you have, the more you can do."  
  
Ranma pondered the words.  
  
"And the reason you didn't sense me using my ki," Happosai continued, "is that it was very focused. Unless you knew how and where to look, you shouldn't have detected any rise in my ki."  
  
"How did this Master Korg crumble a mountain?" Ranma asked.  
  
"I don't know, I wasn't there," Happosai snapped.  
  
"Okay, okay. Sorry. don't get your gi in a bind," Ranma said while making warding gestures with her hands.  
  
Happosai sighed.  
  
"Remember," he finally said, "this is one of Anything Goes most closely guarded secrets."  
  
Ranma nodded and thought of something.  
  
"Um... if it is such a closely guarded secret, how the Amazons get a hold of part of it." Ranma inquired while raising an eyebrow.  
  
Happosai chuckled, "Well, you see, Master Hue had a... hee, that is... the bad habit of lowering his guard when a pretty face showed up... and... hee, hee, hee."  
  
Ranma stared at Happosai for a moment.  
  
_"Oh brother," _she thought as she rolled her eyes.  
  
Then lesson continued.  
  
----------------  
  
Time passed...  
  
New Year's was very busy. Coming of Age was very, very busy.  
  
Ranma flowed through the crowded dining room and place orders quickly and carefully before the diners. Extra tables were set up to capitalize on the festivities. Michiko was running around placing orders in the kitchen and taking them, Makoto was carrying two tea services and balancing a squid pizza on her head. Balance practice in the mornings with Ranma was paying off. Akiko was busy at the register and she had drafted several family members to help out in the kitchen. Hitomi was bussing tables and newly wed Fumiki was taking orders from a large group that had pushed four tables together.  
  
The place was crowded with the new adults as they chatted loudly amongst themselves. Most the men were dressed in dark business suits with an occasional dark-colored kimono thrown in, while all the women hair their hair done up and wore colorful kimonos - many of them expensive and rented - just for the event. Some of the kimonos were so cumbersome that stools, that were taken out of storage earlier, were offered for the women to sit in as so that the bows that tied their outfits off wouldn't be damaged by the back of the chairs.  
  
The crowd was also different in its make up. Usually the restaurant drew young couples that were starting out for a night on the town and didn't give any trouble. That night, Ranma had to fend off at least a dozen advances, some quite aggressive, and not-to-gently escort a few rowdy, drunken twenty year olds to the door. She restrained herself from breaking a guy's finger who actually pinched her rear, but she did give him a nasty sprain in his hand.  
  
Glancing at the clock, Ranma thought with no small relief, _"Only one more hour to go."  
_  
As she was leaning over to refill some cup with tea, one of the slightly inebriated men decided that Ranma's right breast was an interesting object to be groped. Not expecting anything this brazen, the man actually succeeded in copping a good feel.  
  
Ranma was not pleased.  
  
With lighting speed she caught the offending hand with her free one and gave it a painful twist and squeeze. The owner of said hand yelped in pain as his buddies seated with him looked on in surprise. She turned and faced her molester and looked him coldly, very coldly, right in the eye.  
  
"Touch me again," she said as she brought herself under control by remembering a line from some foreign show she watched over at Tamami's, Monty Pi-something-or-other Frying Circus, _"No Mongo! ... never kill a customer"._  
  
Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she put a bit of ki into her voice. She then addressed the now very sober man.  
  
"Touch me like that again, and they'll be carrying you out. Understand?" The coldness she project using her "soul of ice" just added to the effect.  
  
This had the added effect of sobering the rest of the men at the table up quite quickly and she was not bothered by them the rest of the night.  
  
Browsing the dining room, Ranma smiled as she noted Makoto giving a table of men the same type of treatment - she had developed a bit of ki, but not much or how to use it consciously yet. That would take a lot more practice and training for that to happen. She was, however, showing the rewards of the speed training that Ranma had been putting her through. Makoto still came out soaking wet from it, but she was getting faster. Poor fish.  
  
As Ranma studied how one of the men at Makoto's table was holding his hand, the strength training as paying off too. She smiled, having Makoto try to crush tennis balls with her hands had really strengthened her grip.  
  
---------------  
  
Time passed...  
  
April.  
  
Time to return to school.  
  
Ranma's last year of high school.  
  
A herd of girls, nine of them, made their way toward the high school.  
  
Ranma was in the middle of the pack and enjoying lively conversation with Tamami, who over the winter break, tutored Ranma over English. Between her, Ami and the extra schoolwork assigned over breaks, Ranma had finally caught up, for the most part, to the rest of her class.  
  
"You really should try reading it. It's a very good book," Tamami said.  
  
"I don't know... a book about a bunch of wizards?" Ranma asked halfheartedly.  
  
"Oh, but Harry Potter isn't just about wizards... it has a bit of everything in it. Give it a try," Tamami pressed.  
  
Ranma sighed and smiled at the same time.  
  
"But does it have to be in English, though?" Ranma asked.  
  
Tamami smiled back, "Reading something that you're interested in is one of the best ways to motivate yourself into learning a new language. At least for me."  
  
From behind, Michiko interjected while thumbing at the girl walking next to her, "It could be French, Tamami here has started collecting languages like Hitomo collects capsule toys."  
  
Hitomo spoke up on hearing her name and hobby mentioned, "Speaking of which, did you all see the new Sailor Senshi gatchapons that came out yesterday?" She stopped and opened her book bag. "Here, I have a Sailor Mercury with me."  
  
"How did they make figures of them?" Minako asked. "No one knows what they look like."  
  
Five of the girls in the group were extremely curious about this. They knew the disguise field that snapped into place when they transform would make it impossible for anyone, anything or any kind of recording device to recognize them. Now to find that they were immortalized in plastic, each wonder how their figure looked.  
  
"I really don't know," Hitomo shrugged as she fished through her school bag. "My guess is that they used their own impressions of how they think they'd look."  
  
The girls grounded to a halt to see the latest figure in Hitomo's collection.  
  
"Ta-dah," she said triumphantly as she held out the small figure in a blue fuku.  
  
Four of the girls looked upon the small figure with interest, the remainder looked at the abomination before them.  
  
"Oh, man," Ranma whispered.  
  
"You said it," Rei said.  
  
"That's... um, interesting," Minako added.  
  
"I'm... I mean, I don't think Sailor Mercury's... um, are that... big," Ami stammered as her eyes boggled at the small representation of what was supposed to be her in her Senshi form.  
  
"Yeah, I don't think so neither," Hitomo said off handedly while studying the figure. "I think the designers went a little over board."  
  
"You think?!" Minako deadpanned.  
  
"A little!" Usagi said aghast. "If they went a little more over board then her, she would... I mean, she... that is, hers... um, Mercury's, ah, er, um, her..."  
  
"'Boobs' is the word," Ranma said dryly.  
  
"... would need a forklift to support them." Makoto finished for the much befuddled Usagi.  
  
"True," Hitomo agreed. "But this is not as bad as some of the others..."  
  
Five of the nine girls faces drained of color.  
  
"H... how bad are the others?" Usagi squeaked.  
  
"Well, Sailor Moon is pretty big..."  
  
Usagi paled some more.  
  
"... but that new one with the red hair - Sailor Sun, she pretty huge. I think they're going to get complaints on that one."  
  
Ranma, in spite of her self control, flushed.  
  
"How... huge?" Ranma asked, fearing the worst.  
  
The group resumed their walk toward the school.  
  
"Well," Hitomo hummed as she put away the tiny figure in her bookbag. "If Sailor Mercury needs a forklift... then I would say the Sailor Sun would need... um, a shipyard cargo crane."  
  
Rei couldn't contain herself anymore.  
  
"BAH-HA-HA-HA!"  
  
Ranma gave Rei, her annoying friend, a smoldering glare.  
  
"How about Sailor Mars?" Ranma asked flatly.  
  
"I don't have her figure yet," Hitomo answered. "But from the pictures I've seen, she's pretty flat chested compared to the others."  
  
"WHAT!" Rei screeched. This time it was Ranma's turn to laugh.  
  
"BAH-HA-HA-HA!"  
  
The other girls in the group looked on in amusement by Ranma and Rei's reactions.  
  
"Well," Michiko piped up, not realizing who was laughing at whom. "Ranma is a big Sailor Mars fan."  
  
"Huh?" that brought Rei up short.  
  
"That would explain Rei's reaction," Chiyo said. "She did mention how much she liked and envied Sailor Sun at the last slumber party."  
  
"Huh?" that brought Ranma up short.  
  
"Oh yeah, that's right," Tamami confirmed.  
  
The two said persons looked at each other and just as suddenly looked away.  
  
"Oh," they both squeaked.  
  
At that, both girls snapped around to look at each other again, their faces flushed before they looked away again.  
  
With that the gaggling group of girls entered the school yard.  
  
------------------  
  
"Now students," Mr. Kurata getting the classes attention, "What is a chemical?"  
  
The class fell into a heavy silence as each person considered the question.  
  
"Is... is it like... a mixture of elements?" a boy in the back of the class ventured.  
  
"Well that's one way of looking at it," Kurata said. "In truth, everything is a chemical. Whether it be in a pure form or mixed with something else. What you are wearing is chemicals, what you are sitting on is chemicals, and even the air you are breathing is chemicals."  
  
There was a brief mummer in the class.  
  
"Chemistry is the study of matter and how it interacts with other matter and energy. For this semester, we will be studying organic and inorganic matter. Can anyone here tell me the difference between organic and inorganic is?"  
  
Silence once again fell over the class. Ranma screwed up her courage and raised her hand.  
  
"Organic means living things... so I think organic chemistry would be about how living things chemically work," the last said as a question.  
  
Kurata smiled, "That's a good guess, but to be specific: the study of molecules that contain carbon in them. Carbon is the building block of life."  
  
_"Building blocks, hmmm...," _Ranma thought to herself._ "This is getting interesting..."  
_  
"First, we will review the scientific method..." Kurata droned on into things that Ranma covered last year. She was thinking... about building blocks...  
  
----------------  
  
Time passed...  
  
Training with Happosai was a surprisingly enjoyable experience. The only things that weren't to Ranma's liking were the lame names given to most of the techniques that Happosai was teaching her. That in itself wouldn't be bad if she could have changed those names. Happosai though, insisted on keeping the original names and shot down any suggestions for 'cooler' ones.  
  
Bummer.  
  
It seemed like everything was 'The way of this', 'The way of that' or 'The way of something or other'.  
  
The way of the long walk off a short pier. The way of the rock, paper, knife (apparently it was developed before scissors). The way of the Demon dog. The way of putting things on top of other things. The way of silly walks. The way of not being seen.  
  
Ranma pondered the names of some of these techiques. They seemed vaguely familiar for some reason.  
  
The one that stuck in her mind was:  
  
"The way of the fish that travels up stream to spawn before dying? What kind of technique is that?" Ranma asked incredulously.  
  
"It is a sacrificial move. Do you think that those fish know for sure that there will be a next generation? Of course not!" Happosai said authoritatively.  
  
"But... what does it mean?"  
  
"It... is more of a philosophy that a technique, Ranma," Happosai said while puffing on his ever present pipe. "It means that you might have to make a life or death choice on saving the many and not the few. It means you will have to face the prospect of innocents dying so that many more innocents can live. It is not an easy thing to deal with. Especially for someone like you."  
  
Ranma felt a queasiness build up inside her, one she hadn't had in a while. Happosai couldn't have known that she had already faced that demon, and would probably wrestle with it off and on for the rest of her life.  
  
"How do you deal with a decision like that?" Ranma asked softly.  
  
"Me?" Happosai answered with a question. He puffed on his pipe a bit, then spoke. "I think I would look around me and look at the mass of humanity and think 'if it wasn't for me and others that were sacrificed, we would not be here'."  
  
"That would make it better?" Ranma asked, slightly indignant.  
  
"No. Of course not," Happosai snapped back. He then added softly, "It would just make it bearable."  
  
Ranma, for once could fully understand the answer.  
  
----------------  
  
Time passed...  
  
That guy that Pluto had been seeing, some foreigner called The Doctor. He seemed a little - eccentric - but nice. Ranma wondered what the heck was with that scarf and the reason why it was as long as it was. Pluto claimed that she was interested in him because they shared a "professional interest". Ranma could tell she was telling the truth. There was no 'spark' when she talked about him, just a cool analytical evaluation of the Time Lord's actions and that of his TARDIS. It was all purely on a professional level. The other Scouts, however having a more romanic outlook on things, imagined more.  
  
Pluto, or Setsuna, was much better since rejoining the human race. She had her days though, when paranoia struck her and she would have to race back to the Gates to check on them personally. Ranma would go there after her and they would talk about little things, thing of no real import.  
  
But sometimes, it is the littlest things mattered the most. Especially in cultivating a friendship.  
  
-------------  
  
Time passed...  
  
Ranma thought in all her days that she would ever return here. The last time she was in this area, it was the beginning of the end for Ranma Saotome. This one place changed her life more than anything - and it was arranged by a certain Senshi of Time. But that was all past history and forgiven. Ranma felt no anger toward Pluto or remorse for what could have been. She simply accepted the way things were.  
  
And that was good enough.  
  
She stood high upon Mount Phoenix, looking in the direction of Jusenkyo. The wind carried her red ponytail away from her face, trailing behind her. Though the air was freezing, she didn't really feel it because her shields sheltered her from the elements. In spite of the protection, she crossed her arms instinctively as if to keep warm. Then something occurred to her.  
  
_"Hmmm," _Sun wondered. _"My shields protected me from the cold but not the wind. I wonder how strong the wind would have to be before my shields protect me from it?"  
_  
She sighed as she looked above to the clear blue sky with contrasting high clouds that painted streaks of white across the scene. To the north, she saw the peak of Mount Kensei in the distance, its base obscured by the morning mist. The top shone brightly as the snow at its summit reflected the light from the sun.  
  
She was here because Pluto had alerted the Scouts to a self-proclaimed "demi-god" that was soon "going to get too big for his britches". Pluto's vocabulary got more interesting the more she got out.  
  
They were here to "to come to a peaceful understanding and resolution" as Moon put it. She had become quite the negotiator over the last school year. She always tried to figure out things from the other side before trying to work things out or committing to any decisions. She believed that force should be the last resort when dealing with reasonable beings.  
  
This would be the third time she negotiated with another "interested party" in the last six months.  
  
"How's it going?" the Senshi of the Sun asked her companion.  
  
"So far so good. I'm only doing a tight localized reading of the time stream running ten minutes ahead of the present," answered Pluto. "I don't think the Phoenix people are going to be too much of a problem."  
  
"Oh? Why not?"  
  
"Let's just say they have an extensive collection of history, long memories - and they have legends about us... you in particular."  
  
"I... see. So I'm here as a deterrent?" Sun said somewhat bitterly.  
  
Pluto raised her eyebrow as she continued to monitor the time stream with the orb atop of her Garnet Staff.  
  
"Sometimes Sun, the only thing supposedly reasonable and intelligent beings understand is a threat, even a subtle one," Pluto sighed. Her eyes never wavering from her task, she continued, "Sad but true. You're here to ensure that Sailor Moon is taken seriously. These people respect power and strength more than logic and reason."  
  
"Makes me feel like nothing but a weapon," Sun whispered as she looked over the valley. "A thing..."  
  
"Sun..." Pluto began before stopping. She collected her thoughts and continued. "We are all in this together. I sorry. I know it's m-"  
  
"Don't," Sun interrupted Pluto. "We been down that path. No reason to revisit it. I already forgiven you for everything."  
  
Pluto continued to monitor the timestream.  
  
"Besides...," Sun continued, "you and everyone else are in the same boat."  
  
Pluto raised an eyebrow again, then asked, "What do you mean?"  
  
"Well," Sun answered while looking at the other distant mountain peaks. "Look at it this way: when you get right down to it, all the Senshi are really nothing more than weapons."  
  
Pluto pondered this while she continued to watch over Moon through her staff.  
  
"You really believe that?" she asked.  
  
Sun turned her attention to Pluto," Yes, I do."  
  
Pluto was silent.  
  
"Remember when you told me when Moon first was... awakened to fight the Negaverse?"  
  
Pluto nodded, still monitoring the negotiations.  
  
"She never was really given a choice of whether or not she can walk away from it of not. She had to be convinced, prodded and sometimes forced into taking action before she finally accepted her... duty."  
  
Pluto sighed, "And the others?"  
  
"More or less the same," Sun explained." It's not like any of them really volunteered for this. The situation at the time dictated their actions - in the end there was no real choice."  
  
"Choice is what you wanted?" Pluto sighed.  
  
"There are no real choices, just the illusion of choices."  
  
Pause.  
  
"That's disturbing...," Pluto said.  
  
"But," Sun paused dramatically. "The illusion of choice is sometimes just as important as having any real choices."  
  
"Sounds like you been reading again," Pluto said, knowing that Ranma had been reading some interesting philosophy.  
  
"Yeah... well," Sun began, "I've been skimming some books on how if you don't have free choice, then you have no real responsibility." She sighed before continuing, "But, other stuff I've read say that it's not an excuse. That life is really about how you and everyone else interacts with each other. The number and the type of choices are already made for you by the whole of your environment. Everyone always has a limited number of decisions on what they can and cannot do. Their environment dictates the number and what kind of decisions you can make."  
  
"So... does anyone really have any choices?" Pluto asked.  
  
"Yes, but the number is not as great as they think," Sun answered.  
  
Silence fell between the two Senshi. Sun turned and looked out to where she knew Jusenkyo to be.  
  
"Don't mind me," Sun said with a wave of her hand. "It's... it's... just... I'm just... moody. Okay?"  
  
Pluto pondered the situation before venturing, "Thinking about Jusenkyo - and what might have been if you had the choice?"  
  
Sun turned to face Pluto before answering, "No, not really," she said while turning away again to take in the scenery.  
  
"Then what?" Pluto asked as she kept observing the negotiations.  
  
Silence.  
  
"Ah... um, monthlies," Sun sheepishly answered.  
  
More silence.  
  
"Oh," Pluto deadpanned, before smirking. "All the more reason for Saffron to be agreeable. No one wants to face Sailor Sun while she's PMSing."  
  
"PLUU-TO!" the indignant Senshi wailed.  
  
"Looks like their going to be wrapping things up here soon," Pluto said as she watched Sun stammered for a good comeback, much to her amusement. None surfaced.  
  
"Everything looks good from here," Pluto continued to report. "Sailor Moon should be joining us in ten minutes."  
  
A grumbling Sun just nodded her head.  
  
----------------  
  
Time passed...  
  
===== Epilogue =====  
  
Ranma placed the plates out on the table, preparing for the celebration to come. She was working side-by-side with her sister Michiko, readying the closed restaurant for the party. This was to be one last get together for them and their friends before everyone moved on to the next step of their lives: higher education.  
  
Michiko was going into engineering. This surprised Ranma because before she met Jiro she showed no interest in it. But over the last year she had developed a strong taste for fast moving vehicles. A taste, Ranma suspected, she got from her boyfriend or as she put it "he's just a friend that's a guy, that's all".  
  
Yeah, right.  
  
She went as far as to piece together a scooter from scrap and salvaged parts from dead scooters. The result looked like a Yamaha scooter on steroids. She built it all herself and added "a little something extra" to give it "a bit of a zip".  
  
As if a scooter that can go zero to sixty in seven seconds can be considered "zippy".  
  
The school, which had rules on what type and kinds of bikes its students could use, refused to allow her to ride it to school. This limited her 'fun time' to off Saturdays and Sundays.  
  
Michiko applied and was accepted into Nekomi Institute of Technology. The fact that her "guy that's just a friend, that's all" was going there was just a coincidence.  
  
Yeah, right. Again.  
  
For Ranma, due to her efforts and help of her friends, not only graduated from Juuban High, but managed to do so within the top ten percent of her class. When she the opportunity to take the Tokyo University entrance examines, due mostly from some very nice letters of recommendation from her teachers, she did so. To her surprise, she did well enough to be accepted. She wasn't near the top of the class ranking by a long shot, but she did get in.  
  
Ranma going to college. In two days.  
  
Majoring in chemistry.  
  
Who would have thought it.  
  
Looking at the clock, she noted the time. Everyone they knew, and a few they didn't, would be arriving soon.  
  
---------------  
  
The friends were seated at tables that were pushed together and talked loudly amongst themselves. In spite of the din, everyone somehow managed to understand what was being said between them. Which was amazing considering that there was at least five different conversations going. Food and drink were passed between the participants.  
  
Ranma looked over the scene, feeling part of something greater. Her friends, true friends, had grown beyond what she could've imagined two years ago. Ranma was seated in the middle of the table, to her right sat her sister, Michiko. On her left was Rei, who she had grown closer to over the year. They still traded insults, but it was more playful in nature without any sharp edges.  
  
Across from her were Hitomo, Chiyo and Tamami. The last two with their 'boyfriends of the week' that Ranma didn't even make an effort to remember their names. Around the table were other girls, some with their boyfriends, some not. Usagi was there with her fiancé, Mamoru. Ranma only met him the few times that he was visiting from going to school in the United States. He seemed alright. She was alarmed, however, by the way he threw roses around when he was Tuxedo Mask.  
  
She just thanked whatever god there was for the negative answer to her question of him being related to the Kuno's.  
  
As the party wound up, the young people broke into groups whose members intermingled with members of other groups. Akiko was there to "keep any shenanigans from happening". Not that were going to any. Nope, not under her watchful eye.  
  
"Look out!" came a shout from across the room. Suddenly a pink thing dashed under the table where everyone had been seated.  
  
Soon a very wet and very pink cat poked his head out from under the table.  
  
"What happened?" Usagi asked as she bent down to check the condition of the animal.  
  
One of the guys, the one that was with Chiyo, came forward.  
  
"I'm very sorry," he said politely. "Your cat... um, kinda jumped in front of me and startled me."  
  
Everyone eyed the now pink cat wrapped in a towel that Akiko provided.  
  
"I sorta, well dropped my glassful of red punch on it," the embarrassed lad continued as he nervously scratched the back of his head. "Um, can I barrow a mop. I kinda made a mess back there."  
  
"Oh, Artemis, you're soaked! Mrs. Yonai is there anyplace I can take him to get him cleaned up?" Usagi asked apologetically.  
  
"Let me dear. You stay here with your friends and enjoy yourself," Akiko said as she took the still damp and pink cat from Usagi's arms.  
  
As Akiko walked toward the stairs she was being trailed by a black cat.  
  
"Artemis will be alright, Granny is very gentle," Michiko reassured Usagi.  
  
"Yeah, It'll be alright," Ranma chimed in with a broad smile. "Besides, there's karaoke!"  
  
Yup. Uncle Shoji's karaoke machine once again made another appearance.  
  
---------------  
  
Upstairs, in the bathroom, Akiko was filling the sink with warm water. The pink cat tucked securely under one arm, still wrapped in the towel. Hearing a scratching sound, Akiko looked over to the entrance of the bathroom. She discovered another cat, a black one, staring curiously at her from the doorway. Wondering only briefly how a cat could open a door, she turned her attention back to the stained cat, now the sink.  
  
"Now," she addressed the cat. "Let's get you cleaned up."  
  
The sound of singing from downstairs filtered up to the bathroom as Akiko continued to wash and fuss over Artemis. The cat itself was slowly returning to its original color of white. Taking a sideways glance she noticed the other cat peaking out into the hallway before looking overs its shoulder at her.  
  
The cat nodded.  
  
Akiko closed her eyes and allowed her other self come to the front. A crescent moon faintly glowed on her forehead before fading.  
  
"I want to thank the two of you for watching over my daughter and her friends," Akiko said while lifting the wet cat onto a dry towel that was spread out on the floor.  
  
"It has been an honor your majesty," Artemis said while bowing.  
  
"Enough of that," Serenity/Akiko gently chided as she knelt and began drying Artemis . "It turned out better than I could have hoped. Pluto is back doing what she supposed to be doing and Sun has at least a shot at finding happiness."  
  
She continued to rub the now white cat dry.  
  
"And my daughter has grown to be quite to diplomat, hasn't she?" she asked.  
  
"Yes, your majesty," Artemis answered. "She's growing into quite a leader. She's learned to take charge and not afraid to delegate when needed."  
  
"Your majesty," came a whispered call from black cat at the doorway. "Will you ever tell them?"  
  
Serenity/Akiko sighed.  
  
"No, Luna," she answered. "At least not in this life. I still have much work to do and if they knew - well, I fear things could go back to the way they were."  
  
She thought a few more moments before adding.  
  
"And they would probably be... pissed, I think is a good word for it, if they found out the truth before they understood the reasons behind my actions."  
  
Artemis nodded in agreement, "Like Ranma did when she found out about Pluto's manipulations?"  
  
Serenity/Akiko visibly tensed, then relaxed.  
  
"Yes... you can say something like that," she finally said.  
  
"But you will tell them eventually?" Luna interjected.  
  
There was a pause as Serenity/Akiko finished drying Artemis.  
  
"Yes, but not in this century or the next five for sure," Serenity/Akiko finally answered.  
  
The laughter and singing was getting louder as evidence that the party was in full swing.  
  
"I wondered... do you think Pluto's concerns about Sun were founded?" Luna asked.  
  
"No," Serenity/Akiko answered. "Even if they were, I could deal with Sun if it came down to it."  
  
"Your majesty?" Luna questioned.  
  
Serenity/Akiko smiled, "In spite of what is indicated in the official records, there is a fail-safe."  
  
The two cats looked quizzically at Serenity/Akiko.  
  
"No one can overpower Sailor Sun - not even me," she said. "But, the power of all the Senshi does flow through me, even if I cannot use the power myself. If it came to it, I could 'cut it off'."  
  
Luna and Artemis looked at each other, then back at the elderly woman.  
  
Does that go for any of them?, the black cat asked.  
  
Serenity/Akiko nodded, as silence fell among the three.  
  
"Now, Serenity/Akiko said as she smiled at her two charges. I think it is time to rejoin the party. Besides it wouldn't do to have that many young people in one place without a chaperone too long, would it?"  
  
Closing her eyes, the crescent moon glowed and faded from her forehead as her Serenity self was put away.  
  
With that she rose and lead the two cats back to the first floor.  
  
============  
  
End Juuban  
  
===========  
  
Author notes:  
  
Well, I "winged" this one. Let me know if I'm still airborne or if I crashed and burned.  
  
I know that a lot of time was covered in this chapter, but it was necessary. But considering up to midway in Part 11 (13 on the pop up menu) covered months and the last bit of the same chapter to the beginning part of this one cover ONE weekend. That's right, approximately four chapters devoted to a Saturday and Sunday.  
  
Ranma had a very busy weekend.  
  
For those who are wondering about when Tenchi is going to show up. Ranma doesn't met him until her freshman year in college, which should be soon story-wise. I have a general direction I want to take the story, but I'll probably take the time to a least semi-outline it before writing any more...  
  
... and that will give me time to fire up the old betamax and... I mean VCR, yeah, that's it... er, ah, DVD? - ahem, to watch the Tenchi OVA's again. It's been awhile. (Author sweatdrops as he shows his age.)  
  
I do have a side story cooking about the government investigation mentioned in this chapter. I have only about four thousand words down on it and I'm not to sure about it how it is going to turn out. I got distracted by searching for napkins.  
  
And I been thinking about doing some other stories that's been bopping around my head.  
  
Sigh.  
  
Well, anyway I'll keep plugging away.


	19. Side Story

  
  
I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine for putting up with me (which ain't easy at times) - and also for pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.  
  
Constructive criticism is always welcome.  
  
I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental.  
  
As always the spelling errors are mine, as are the grammar mistakes. I do own those finally and no longer have to rent them like I had been doing.  
  
Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.  
  
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Side Story: Government Actions  
  
(My most cliche yet!)  
  
-----------  
  
Sunday morning.  
  
Early morning.  
  
In a small, cluttered apartment in the Katsushika part of Tokyo, near the Shin-Koiwa station, silence ruled.  
  
Until it was broken by the ringing of a cell phone.  
  
A groan was heard. From a rumbled sheet covering the futon that was in the middle of the room, a lump stirred. The groan made an encore as the phone repeated its ring. An arm emerged from under the thin sheet and groped around before finding the offending device and picked it up on the third ring. The arm retreated back under the sheet taking the phone with it.  
  
"Hello?" a sleepy voice asked.  
  
_"Kitsune?" _a disembodied voice asked.  
  
"Speaking," Kitsune Murakami answered, half asleep.  
  
_"Oh, good. You don't sound like you over the phone. It's Washi. Where have you been? Do you know what happened? We thought for sure we would be hearing from you after you saw the news."  
_  
"What news? I've been off for a week - you know I make it a point to not watch any TV while on vacation. Even if I did, I went deep-sea fishing for a couple of days and only got... in ..." pausing to look at the clock on the wall, "about four and a half hours ago."  
  
Kitsune, still holding the phone to his ear, sat up and scratched his armpit.  
  
_"Well turn it on," _Washi urged over the phone_. "You know those magic girls you kept saying were more than urban legend? Well yesterday Juuban was invaded by an army of monsters and they came out in the open and helped fight them off. There's going to be an investigation and knowing your... interests on this I wouldn't be surprised if they call you in on it."_  
  
Slightly more awake now, Kitsune's mind started to work before his body.  
  
_"Monsters? Magic girls?" _he thought. "You mean the Senshi?" he finally asked.  
  
_"Yes," _Washi answered over the phone. _"Now turn on the TV."_  
  
Crawling from the futon over to the television, Kitsune picked up the remote and turned it on. He blinked a few times as his eyes grew accustomed to the bright light being emitted by the screen. When his eyes finally focus on the images his mouth dropped open as watched in amazement.  
  
The action on the screen was something out of a science fiction movie. A short skirted girl, a Senshi by appearance (but one that he never heard a report of before), took what could only be described as a ki charged fist in the face. The well built, shorted skirted, teal dressed girl disappeared from the screen leaving a headless thing on the ground that seemed to repair and grow before the camera.  
  
The picture then jerked around a bit before Kitsune had the presence of mind to un-mute the television.  
  
_"... -ese dramatic shots from yesterday. It was at about at this point that Senshi X..." _he quickly turned the volume down to a level where he could ignore it if he chose to and focused his attention on the action.  
  
The camera jerked around some more before settling on the same teal dressed girl, hovering high above the scene. The picture then zoomed in on the girl, her face obscured by a rainbow effect that made identifying her impossible. She looked like she was struggling with something internal before a corona of power erupted from her body.  
  
It was when the camera pulled back a bit Kitsune realized that the girl had wings that sprouted from her back. Wings of flame.  
  
"I'll call you back," he absently said into the receiver as he disconnected. He was quickly absorbed into the developments of the previous day.  
  
He watched the events that unfolded in Juuban with interest. Kitsune remembered when he had been briefed on these 'magic girls' when he got promoted to Investigator two years ago. The 'magic girls' were eventually dismissed as high end martial arts 'ki manipulators', the type you would find in any martial arts obsessed area, like Nerima.  
  
For Kitsune, they struck his interest, an interest that became an obsession for a while like any other mystery or unexplained phenomenon. They were like a puzzle that begged to be solved by him. He knew that the events surrounding the 'magic girls' were more complicated than any martial arts or artist he had studied before. In his studies, he had versed himself in what a martial artist could do and couldn't and these girls didn't quite fit the mold.  
  
When he first took to studying the 'Senshi', as they became known publicly, he gathered and collected material on them - no matter how obscure. He wanted to uncovered the truth behind the urban myths that had sprung up around the group of 'ki manipulators'. It wasn't so much the amount of information that he found surprising, but the age of what he found. It seemed that there was more to the Senshi than urban legend. What he did find was usually very old, enigmatic and mostly forgotten. Stories that were recorded on clay tablets or half rotted papyrus, that told tales of a civilization that fell in some catastrophe thousands of years ago.  
  
It could be compared to the legend of Atlantis, but much, much older.  
  
It was amazing what one would find if one dug around enough. Most of the information were copies of copies of copies of even older records that some claimed (by using and inferring the astronomical data on some of the records) originated from before the last Ice Age, eleven to twelve thousand years ago.  
  
Many copies of the records that he collected were uncovered from various places around the world and told basically the same tale. A tale that was so fantastic, that the artifacts were usually dismissed as telling fictional stories, lore or parables and not historic record. The fact that they told the same story was also dismissed, by many professional scholars, as mere coincidence.  
  
It became a side line, a hobby, and for a while, an obsession that occupied his off hours. Kitsune wanted to know what made them tick, what motivated them and most important, what they were up to. He tried to find out how the Senshi compared to the legends from the ancient records he discovered and how they did what they did. He was frustrated in his efforts because there was just not enough information about them in the present to do a comparison.  
  
Focusing his attention to the news broadcast, his brain was working overtime, trying to pull everything he uncovered about the Senshi into use.  
  
_"There is something about this particular Senshi,"_ he thought with a frown as the news show babbled about the newest Senshi, tentatively dubbed by the press as 'Senshi X'. _"They say she is a new one that never has been reported by anyone before - but why does she seem so familiar?"_  
  
With a frenzy of activity, he began to dig through one of the file boxed that he kept under his desk. Eventually he dug out a thin folder, he pulled out its contents before fishing out a photostat of a stone tablet. One with a very detailed and lifelike drawing etched onto its surface - almost photographic in itself. He studied the drawing and compared it to what he was witnessing before him.  
  
As he held up the photostat up next to the television, he was startled by the similarities. The flames that came from and re-entered her body. Check. The wings that looked as if they were made of fire. Check. The distortion around the face and head. Check. The glowing sword in hand. Check. The knock down, drop-dead gorgeous figure. Check.  
  
Kitsune lowered the photostat and watched the re-run on the screen. There was no doubt in his mind, she was the one pictured on the tablet. Turning the sheet over, he read the information about the original.  
  
"Etched stone tablet. Uncovered in a buried pit between San Estanislao and San Joaquin, Paraguay during an excavation for a road expansion Jan, 1969. Style is unlike any local art uncovered, Columbian or Pre-Columbian. Suspected that it was deposited there by unknown third party.  
  
Radiocarbon dating of organic matter that was done on the undisturbed matrix that it was found in was inconclusive in determining exact date. Estimates from the radiocarbon dating combined with the local geology were used for dating and placed the object burial between the late Upper Paleolithic to early Mesolithic Periods. Approximately 7500 - 10,000 B.C.  
  
Symbols on the tablet are in an unknown language and have not been translated. Other symbols appear to be astronomical in nature and are believed to be related to the Sun. This suggests that this is an image of a Sun Goddess, Sun Warrior or something similar."  
  
Kitsune flipped the photo back over, he re-compared the images from the photostat to those on the television.  
  
_"Sun Warrior.... hmmmm. That has to be her," _he thought. Studying the images some more, he concluded, _"There's no doubt, this is her."_ He added with a smile, _"Sailor Sun."_  
  
Spurred on by this turn of events, Kitsune began to dig through other folders of accumulated data that he spent two years on. He stopped at a thick stack of photostats. This time a copy of a copy of a bound book that dated back, according to the archeologist that photograph it in the nineteen thirties, some three thousand years and protected by a race of Amazon warriors.  
  
Chinese Amazons, according to Dr. Jones.  
  
Reading over Dr. Jones's notes, the locals claimed that the text was a copy of scrolls that were handed down from one priestess to the next, predating the very existence of the Amazonian tribe.  
  
_"Hmmm... let's see...,"_ Kitsune thought before beginning to read the accompanying summary of the partial translation:  
  
"A group of warrior women whose duty was to protect the Kingdom of the Moon. Each was granted the power of the planets and guarded their domains from evil from within and without. Together they ensured peace not only on their worlds, by on all the worlds. They were lead by an all powerful, benevolent queen that ruled with compassion and care."  
  
He skipped down a bit.  
  
"One warrior was granted the power of the heart of all the stars and guarded the kingdom from invaders from beyond the emptiness."  
  
Kitsune's brow furrowed as he skimmed the material, stopping to read Dr. Jones' personal notes:  
  
"The original scrolls were lost to age, but before it succumbed to time, the entire text was transcribed under the direction of one of the last priestesses. What remains of the original scroll kept in a jar made from a large chunk of amber - possibly the largest I've ever seen."  
  
Kitsune studied the black and white photo of a youngish-looking American holding a large jar. The man was smiling for the camera. He was Caucasian, sporting a wide brimmed hat, wearing khakis, a holstered gun and what appeared to be a coiled bullwhip on his belt. According to the caption it was Dr. Jones himself, holding the jar that contained the remains of the original scroll. The jar itself, was about eighteen of twenty-two inches long, ten inches in diameter at its widest and was smooth looking and appeared to be without any seams.  
  
The background was filled with locals, all women holding swords or other weapons, looking on with guarded expressions on their faces as Dr. Jones held their sacred artifact for the camera. The people were obviously Chinese and seemed unsure about what to do. Possibly seeing a western man for the first time in their history made them unsure, if anything. The crowd varied in age from young girls in their teens to the elderly. There was not one man other than Dr. Jones in the photo. The one person that stood out above the others, with the exception of Dr. Jones himself, was probably the oldest woman Kitsune had ever seen. What made her stand out was how small and troll-like she looked...  
  
... and the fact she was perched and balanced on a long staff.  
  
Breaking from his studies, Kitsune's attention was drawn back to the television. He recognized the person that was now on the screen as the Commissioner, the head of the National Police Agency, where he worked. He was making a statement of some sort at what was obviously a press conference. Kitsune reached over for the remote and turned up the volume.  
  
_"... we assure the Diet, and the people of Japan, that a full investigation into the activities of these... 'magic girls' ... will be conducted to determine if their presence here is a threat to national security. Let me introduce you to the man who will be leading the investigation, Chief Inspector Yamada. He will answer any questions you may have..."  
  
_At that pointKitsune hit the mute button in disgust.  
  
_"They're putting that bureaucratic idiot in charge?!" _he swore to himself. _"They might as well not even bother to have an investigation if they're going have him lead it."  
_  
Kitsune was about to continue his rant when he was interrupted by the phone ringing.  
  
"Hello," he answered with a slightly annoyed tone.  
  
_"Lt. Murakami?"_ the voice of Hachiman Tsuji, Kitsune's immediate supervisor said.  
  
"Yes sir," Kitsune replied, more politely.  
  
_"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to cut your holiday short," _Tsuji said. _"This Senshi thing has got people in high places rattled. And some highly placed people want you specifically in on the investigation."  
_  
"I just saw on the TV that Yamada was leading this," Kitsune began.  
  
_"It will be explained to you in detail when you get down here," _Tsuji paused_.  
_  
"Yes sir," Kitsune replied with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.  
  
_"Good. I'm also calling in your partner, I expect you here within the hour."  
_  
"Yes sir."  
  
_"Good. I'll see you when you get here. Goodbye."  
_  
"Goodbye," Kitsune said as a dial tone filled his ear.  
  
_"That was weird,"_ he thought slightly confused as he prepared himself to meet his boss.  
  
Taking a quick shower and shave, Kitsune dressed, donned a black sports jacket, looked around his apartment one last time and closed and locked the door.  
  
He was soon on his way.  
  
-----------------  
  
Driving down the Shuto Expressway No. 7, Kitsune had time to reflect about what was going on and why he was called in on this. Well, he was expecting to be called in on this, but those hopes were dashed when Chief Inspector Yamada was named to lead the investigation. No, Yamada would never call Kitsune in on this, no matter how qualified he was.  
  
Yamada and him never got along for a reason Kitsune couldn't fathom. Maybe it was Kitsune's refusal to kiss ass.  
  
Remembering back a year and half ago when Yamada's animosity toward him flared, he tried to make Kitsune look like a fool in front of the entire department. Only to have Kitsune turn the tables on Yamada. Unlike other subordinates, Kitsune wasn't afraid to point out his superiors shortcomings. In the end, Yamada stormed away from the confrontation of his making looking more like a spoiled brat than a professional law enforcement officer.  
  
Yamada never forgave him for that embarrassment even though he mainly did it to himself. Yamada made it no secret when he tried to stand in the way of an advancement that Kitsune had earned, only to have that backfire. As one of the Division Directors pointed out at his last promotion, "anyone who can get Yamada that pissed off, must be doing something right".  
  
Kitsune smiled at the memory of that as he pulled into the parking garage.  
  
------------------  
  
Kitsune knocked before entering Assistant Commissioner's Hachiman Tsuji's office. Tsuji was seated behind his desk looking worried about something. This didn't alarm Kitsune in the least because Tsuji always looked worried about something. He was a big, barrel chest man that looked more like a retired sumo wrestler than the Head of the National Police Agency Department of Special Investigations. He wore thick glasses, a thin mustache under his nose - graying on the outer edges. This was the only hair he had for he was bald.  
  
Sitting in one of the chairs opposite Hachiman, Kitsune glance uneasily at his partner Daishi before eyeing the third person who was standing off to the side. One he hadn't met before.  
  
Setsuke Daishi was an unmarried woman in her mid twenties though she could pass for a girl in her late teens. Her hair was shoulder length and trimmed neatly away from her oval shaped face and she wore little or no make up. The only jewelry she wore was two gold ear studs and a watch on her left wrist.  
  
She also had an eye for detail and was good at keeping Kitsune's flights of fancy to a minimum.  
  
The newcomer was a slight man in his mid-thirties. He seemed to ooze a sublime power that suggested that he was not someone to take lightly. He wore a neat suit, whose dark color accented his close-cropped blondish hair. His expression was unreadable.  
  
Hachiman looked up when Kitsune entered and shut the door behind him.  
  
"Good, your here," Hachiman said while motioning Kitsune into a chair next to his partner. "Let me make some quick introductions. This -" motioning toward the standing man, "is Lt. Daisetsu Momotani. He's come from the Yokohama division to assist in the investigation."  
  
Kitsune and Setsuke greeted their newest team member.  
  
"He also worked in the Special Research Section into Paranormal Activities," Hachiman continued. "And before you ask it's not what it sounds like."  
  
Kitsune raised an eyebrow.  
  
The stranger known as Daisetsu spoke with a hint of humor, "Yes, we did get a lot of flack about that name. We mostly investigated fortune tellers and con artists claiming to use spiritual means to 'help' their clients. Mostly what they did was help themselves to their clients' money."  
  
"But why such an crank name?" Setsuke asked while turning to face him more.  
  
"The type of victims we dealt with seemed to open up more about their experiences when we approached them on their level of belief," Daisetsu answered in a way that sounded like something he'd had to repeat many times. "Otherwise they would clam up and say we were trying to make fools of them or embarrass them in some way. It was slightly misleading, but the name did help make our jobs easier."  
  
Setsuke could relate to the problem and nodded understandably. Working on some of the more unusual cases with Kitsune over the last year and a half, she had run into similar situations. Some people just wouldn't talk about their beliefs or anything else unless they were surrounded by like-minded individuals. It sometimes made investigating a frustrating experience.  
  
"So... how does Yamada fit into all of this?" Kitsune asked, wanting to get any bad news out of the way.  
  
Assistant Commissioner Tsuji sighed and looked at his hands, folded neatly before him on his desk. Looking up he gave each person in the room an even gaze.  
  
"What I am about to say doesn't leave this room. Understand?" he said gravely.  
  
Daisetsu murmured a "yes sir" while Kitsune and Setsuke merely nodded.  
  
Clearing his throat, Hachiman began, "Yamada is handling the public investigation. An investigation that already has a predetermined outcome."  
  
Setsuke raised an eyebrow, Daisetsu remained standing where he was and Kitsune broached the silence that fell.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
Hachiman sighed again, "I mean in a few months time, the Senshi or Scouts or whatever they are called will be found not to be a threat to the public or the country."  
  
Kitsune pondered this.  
  
"This is to head off any panic, is it?" he finally ventured.  
  
Hachiman nodded, "That is how it was explained to me."  
  
"We're the real investigation, aren't we?" Kitsune stated more than asked, keeping the excitement out of his voice.  
  
Hachiman once again nodded.  
  
"Where do we start?" Daisetsu asked.  
  
Hachiman reached over and grabbed a stack of folders.  
  
"This is all the information we have so far on the incident yesterday," he explained while handing the stack to Kitsune. "Everything from confirmed events to nutjobs claiming to have information. The military has been ordered to give cooperation in this and will make any personal you wish to interview available."  
  
Hachiman got out of his chair and paced back and forth behind his desk. He stopped by the window and looked out it. The light from the windows shined off his bald head.  
  
"This comes from way up," he spoke as he turned to face the three. "Way up. Nothing is to by reported back to this office over unsecured lines. I would like hard copies of your reports instead. I want them handed to me personally by you... and make sure nothing is kept on your computers or backed up to any servers."  
  
"That would make putting any information together difficult," Setsuke said.  
  
Hachiman nodded, "You will be issued laptops for use with this assignment. You can pick them up from Kenjiro before you leave. They are to be turned back in at the conclusion of the investigation."  
  
Kitsune sat and began leafing through the thick file folders that Hachiman gave them.  
  
"Right," he replied absently. "We'll get right on it."  
  
Hachiman nodded in a dismissive way as the three exited the room.  
  
----------------  
  
Out in the hall.  
  
"So what do you think?" Kitsune asked addressing Daisetsu.  
  
"I don't really know. I've really dealt with - ah, magic girls before- and to be honest with you I don't know why I was called in on this either."  
  
"Probably as a watchdog," Setsuke said idly.  
  
"A watchdog?" came the puzzled reply.  
  
"What Setsuke is trying to say" Kitsune interjected, "is that we deal with weirdness all the time. You were probably called in to give an impartial report of this as you see it. Don't worry, it happens all the time."  
  
"... or you're here to spy on the investigation. Don't worry, that happens all the time too," Setsuke added offhandedly.  
  
Daisetsu blink-blinked at the two.  
  
"... oh...," he then mumbled.  
  
"Well anyway," Kitsune sighed. "Let's see what's in these reports and plan on how we are going to do this."  
  
---------------  
  
Tuesday morning.  
  
Kitsune and his partners were interviewing General Takei, the senior most officer to come into direct contact with the Senshi.  
  
"Thanks for coming down, sir. Your aid in this investigation is appreciated," Kitsune said in a very profession and formal way.  
  
"Not at all," Takei replied. "I would be honored to aid you in any way. I have been instructed by my superiors to extend my fullest cooperation."  
  
Kitsune and Setsuke smiled at the man seated across from them. Daisetsu seemed to prefer to stand behind rather sit.  
  
"Now, in your own words, tell us what happened and your impressions of the Senshi."  
  
General Takei sat firm and upright as he told the three, in detail, the events of last Saturday. Occasionally, one of the agents would ask him to elaborate on a detail.  
  
"She stepped out of thin air?" Setsuke asked with one eyebrow raised.  
  
"Teleportation," Kitsune stated.  
  
"No..., at least I don't think so," General Takei fumbled for words.  
  
The seated agents stared at the seated officer.  
  
"Then what then?" Kitsune prodded.  
  
"She said... " General Takei paused to gather his words together, "something about the fabric of space and folding two points together. I was so stunned by seeing someone step out of nothing, I may have remembered it wrong."  
  
Setsuke looked over to her partner beside her. "Isn't that teleportation?" she asked him.  
  
"Maybe... " Kitsune mused. "Folding space, moving through folding space. How much energy would you think it would take to do that?"  
  
Daisetsu coughed. Turning the two seated agents looked at him for a comment. He waved them off.  
  
"Did this Senshi have a name?" Kitsune asked as he turned his attention back to the General.  
  
"Yes," he replied firmly. "The others called her Sun. Sailor Sun."  
  
"That is not common knowledge," Setsuke said, leaning forward. She knew that having information that was not public was sometimes key to solving a crime, she moved to take steps to keep this under wraps. "Does anyone else know about this?"  
  
"Yes. Just me and the staff that was with me, and Dr. Ikari," the General answered.  
  
"I need you to make sure that this doesn't get out until the investigation is completed," Setsuke said. "Can you do that?"  
  
"Yes. Of course, I'll order my men to keep silent on the subject" General Takei replied. "However, Dr. Ikari just left last night on an expedition to Antarctica. He won't be back for several months."  
  
He's gone? Setsuke asked incredulously. He was one of the top people on our list we wanted to talk to.  
  
Kitsune nodded absently as he half-listened to the conversation, pondering something in the name of the newest reported Senshi. He was silently thinking over some of his personal files on the Senshi, _"The tablet. What was it? Hmmm...,"_ he thought to himself, then it dawned on him. Thinking the last part out loud, he whispered, "Sun Warrior... Sailor Sun..."  
  
"What?" Setsuke asked, breaking his thoughts.  
  
Blinking and coming back to the here and now, Kitsune waved his hand dismissively.  
  
"Nothing," he said. "Just something to check on later."  
  
The interview continued.  
  
-----------------  
  
Thursday, mid-afternoon.  
  
The first stop in their investigation.  
  
The room was a disaster area. Paper and scientific journals stacked haphazardly everywhere. The smell was incredible, like a sick mixture of iodine and lemons... and very strong. The guts of many electronic pieces of equipment, now unidentifiable, were equally thrown everywhere. Somewhere in this chaotic sea of paper and plastic, was a sort of order.  
  
An order only a madman could understand.  
  
And said madman, a portly, grey haired retired electronics and physics researcher who became a self proclaimed 'Scientist of the Ultra-Normal' by the name of Dr. Yachi was eyeing a certain young police investigator with annoyance.  
  
"So let me get this straight," Setsuke said dryly while resting her weight on one foot and folding her arms across her chest. "You claimed to have invented a device that can detect - magic?"  
  
"No, that's not what I said," the grey haired scientist snapped. "I said I modified a Venkman, Stantz and Spengler detector to pick up the frequency of magical energy being generated in a locality."  
  
Setsuke stared blankly at the older man.  
  
The grumpy old scientist snorted, then clarified, "I didn't invent it, I modified it."  
  
"Venkman, Stantz and Spengler?" Setsuke asked. "Who are they?"  
  
Dr. Yachi exhaled explosively, then shook his head in exasperation. It was as if she'd just asked the most obvious question in the world.  
  
"Doctors Venkman, Stantz and Spengler were pioneers in the investigation into the paranormal," Kitsune answered for the flustered scientist. "About twenty years ago they developed instruments for detecting ghosts and other 'ectoplasmic' creatures."  
  
Setsuke looked at Kitsune incredulously. Kitsune for his part, smirked.  
  
"Common knowledge," he replied to her look.  
  
With a flustered look, she shook her head.  
  
"About what you called us about?" Daisetsu asked, bring the conversation back on track.  
  
"Huh? Oh, yes," Dr. Yachi said. "I got some interesting readings that weekend. By using and checking the time for the sequence of events from last Saturday to the readings I was getting. Well, see for yourself..."  
  
Dr. Yachi began pulling out rolls of graph paper with squiggly lines on them. He selected one and partially unrolled it.  
  
"Here," he explained, "is the average level of magic in the Tokyo and surrounding areas."  
  
The roll was about five inches wide and had a long line that varied smoothly across one edge of it. There were occasional spikes, but on the average, none were over two lines on the graph.  
  
"What do these lines mean?" Setsuke asked as the three investigators crowded around the retired scientist's work.  
  
"The lines going across the paper are time, on this roll being minutes," he said. "The lines going the other way represent the amount or level of magic being detected."  
  
"How is it measured - the magic that is?" Setsuke asked.  
  
"It's measured using the standard Venkman, Stantz and Spengler units. Each line is equivalent to ten units."  
  
"Is there usually this much magic activity in Tokyo?" Daisetsu asked, not really sure about what he was seeing.  
  
"Oh yes," Dr. Yachi replied. "But here in the last month or so, there have been unexpected spikes of enormous power. Sometimes they come and go after a period of time, other times I get just a spike."  
  
"Okay, this is the usual level - what about last Saturday?" Kitsune asked, wanting to get to the heart of the matter.  
  
These -" he unrolled another set, "are the readings taken during the fight last Saturday."  
  
The three agents studied the long sheet of graph paper as it was unrolled before them. It was markedly different than the previous sample. The lines started normally then climbed to the opposite edge in steps. Midway through the roll the measuring line shot to the high end of the sheet and stay pegged to the edge.  
  
"This large surge of magic," Dr. Yachi explained while pointing out the details on the graph, "coincided with the appearance of Sailor X."  
  
Later...  
  
"So what you're saying is that with each appearance of a Senshi, the magic increased in the area?" Setsuke asked a clarify question.  
  
"Yes, exactly," Dr. Yachi said.  
  
"So what?" Daisetsu asked, slightly peeved. "I mean what good is this information?"  
  
"It means that these magic girls may not be magic girls all of the time," Kitsune said as the two detectives looked on with quizzical looks and one scientist beamed.  
  
"I'm guessing," Kitsune continued, "for the most part that these girls may be normal, everyday girls until they summon or manifest their power."  
  
Daisetsu sighed. "That would make them harder to find, wouldn't it? It would be like looking for a needle in a haystack."  
  
"Not necessarily," Setsuke said as she thought deeply on something. Looking up at her companions, "We just have to know how to look."  
  
The two male detectives looked on questionably.  
  
--------------  
  
Monday morning.  
  
"What are you both doing?" Daisetsu asked as he entered the crowded office he temporarily shared with Kitsune and Setsuke. Looking at his fellow agents, they were sitting at their desks and busily sorting through stacks of folders.  
  
Looking for a needle in a haystack, Setsuke answered smartly.  
  
"We're going through the reports of people who were picked up in the cordoned off zone after the battle was over," Kitsune said.  
  
Daisetsu looked blankly for a moment, "Fishing for a lead?"  
  
Kitsune nodded as his continued to sort through the files.  
  
"How many people were picked up," he asked as he eyed the stacks for folders.  
  
"Six to seven hundred were reportedly pick up in the cordon off area." Kitsune replied absently.  
  
"That's a lot..."  
  
"Yes," Setsuke said. "But, we're first limiting are search to girls between thirteen and twenty years of age for starters and see where that leads us."  
  
"How many so far?" Daisetsu asked.  
  
Kitsune looked at the thin stack between where he and Setsuke were working.  
  
"I'd say about fifty so far," he finally answered.  
  
Daisetsu took a seat and picked up a random file and began thumbing through it, seeing it was of a male he placed it in one of the obvious discard piles.  
  
"Then what?" he asked as he placed another file in the discard - this time a woman in her fifties.  
  
"Then we'll look at the reports and the transcripts of their interviews and look for someone who looks out of place," Setsuke said as she thumbed through a file, only to discard it.  
  
"That would mean everyone. No civilians were suppose to be there," Daisetsu stated.  
  
Setsuke sighed.  
  
"We're looking for people who were suspiciously out of place or didn't have a plausible reason for being where they were," Kitsune elaborated. "If someone looks promising, then we do a more detailed background check."  
  
And then?  
  
We then go and talk to her.  
  
Daisetsu nodded and gave his full attention to the task at hand.  
  
-------------  
  
The following Monday, mid afternoon.  
  
The sky was surprisingly bright and clear. The few clouds that did haunt the skies were nothing but streaks of white, high against the blue sky. The distance rolling hills, covered with layers of ice and snow, were dotted among the flat, white plains. In fact, snow and ice covered about everything and reflected the sun's light, like a mirror. Off to the north, low in the horizon, the sun was almost blinding in is brilliance.  
  
Nothing like Kitsune expected.  
  
_"In every movie I've seen the Antarctica is always cold, dark and had a continuous snow storm,"_ he mused to himself as he stomped some warmth into his feet. _"Well, the cold part is right - good thing it's summer down here are it would really be cold."  
_  
His partners looked worse for wear. After three changes of flights and twenty nine hours to reach the base Dr. Ikari was working out of, he imagined he looked no better. The Hercules C-130J cargo/transport plane especially outfitted for cold weather use wasn't the most comfortable way to fly, but it got them there.  
  
_"It wouldn't be so bad," _Kitsune thought, _"if I could get the smell of aviation fuel out of my nose."  
_  
"Flying on three planes from three different countries," Setsuke said. "This must be some kind of international expedition."  
  
Kitsune nodded idly as Daisetsu merely grunted his agreement.  
  
"Excuse me, Lieutenant," Setsuke asked the liaison officer assigned to them in English. "When can we see Dr. Ikari?"  
  
"Well," Lt. McCallum answered in accented Japanese, "he is not exactly here. This is the main base of operations. Dr. Ikari is at one of the field bases - about two hours from here in the Snowcat."  
  
He finished his statement with a wave toward a large, blocky and heavy looking vehicle resting on wide, flat trends.  
  
"Two hours...," a very tired sounding Setsuke wilted wearily. The two men behind her felt the same way.  
  
-------------  
  
Arriving at the field base, which was nothing more than a group of small underground - or as it were - underice bunkers. As the liaison officer checked them in with the Officer of the Day, the three agents took the opportunity to remove their parkas. Working the kinks out of their tired bodies, each stretched and groaned in relief.  
  
"Dr. Ikari will make himself available in about four hours," Lt. McCallum said as he approached the trio. "He is in the middle of examining... some data and cannot be disturbed."  
  
"That's fine," Kitsune replied wearily. "Is there is anyplace we could rest before we interview him?"  
  
"Yes, of course," he answered. "This way please."  
  
------------  
  
"On behalf of my colleagues," Kitsune began, "we'd like to thank you for your time."  
  
"Of course," the goateed man answered. "I would be more than happy to help you in your investigation."  
  
"Thank you," Kitsune said with a smile. "Now, what can you tell us about your impressions of the Senshi."  
  
Using his right index finger, Dr. Ikari pushed his thick rimmed glasses back up onto the bridge of his nose.  
  
"Powerful, astonishingly powerful," he answered simply.  
  
Kitsune, Setsuke and Daisetsu waited for the doctor to continue. After a few minutes of silence, Kitsune prompted the doctor.  
  
"And?"  
  
"Huh?" the confused doctor blink-blinked and asked.  
  
"We understand they're powerful," Daisetsu said. "But about the Senshi -?"  
  
"Ahh yes, the Senshi," the doctor said thoughtfully. "Um... what did you need to know again?"  
  
The three agents sighed as one.  
  
"How can the Senshi be so powerful," Kitsune prompted.  
  
"Ah yes, powerful - of course, the Sailor Scouts," the doctor muttered absently.  
  
The minutes ticked by in silence as the three agents waited for the doctor to say something.  
  
"Can you give us your theory on how the Sailor Scout can be so powerful?" Setsuke prodded.  
  
The doctor blink-blinked back into the here and now and visibly thought over this question.  
  
"Well, we - that is, I- have a theory about the Scouts," he finally said. "By using and controlling the basic powers of the universe and using the mass of planetary bodies to harness and channel the power through them, they are able to channel massive amounts of energy to various effects."  
  
Setsuke and Kitsune each raised an eyebrow simultaneously, Daisetsu merely grunted.  
  
"How is that possible?" Setsuke asked.  
  
"This theory I have," he went on to say, "and it's only a theory - that I can't prove unless I have access to a Senshi with time to disec- ah, I mean study her," Dr. Ikari slipped as Kitsune hid his surprise.  
  
All was quiet for a moment as Dr. Ikari gathered his scattered thoughts.  
  
"This energy," the he finally continued, "this power, exists on the most basic level of the universe. The only way I can describe this power is: it's like the aura of the universe - similar to the aura of living things. Also I theorize that one way to tap into this power is to fuse or merge with it in some way. To do this you must be bonded in some fashion to a conduit. The conduit for the Senshi I suspect are the planets in the solar system."  
  
"Do you have any suggestions on how this could be used to track them down?"  
  
Dr. Ikari shook his head.  
  
"I really can't think of anything helpful in that area," he said while pushing his glasses back again. "We have suspected the existence of the Senshi for a while now, but lack the tools needed to really understand them."  
  
"Who's 'we'?" Kitsune asked.  
  
Dr. Ikari looked at Kitsume before answering in an even tone.  
  
"When I say 'we', I mean we as in the scientific community. No scientist works in a vacuum."  
  
A few moments of silence descended on the four.  
  
"What can you tell me about Sailor Sun?" Kitsune asked.  
  
"Ahh... now that is one subject I would like to study," the obviously excited doctor said. "The amount of power she displayed was incredible, simply incredible."  
  
"We gathered that, Dr. Ikari," Setsuke cut in, slightly irritated at the unfocused doctor. "We were hoping for something more substantial."  
  
"Sailor Sun," he began in a no nonsense way, "and this from my own observations only, is capable of moving through space/time. She can apparently create a tear the very fabric of space/time and force a juncture between two distance points. This juncture, or fold, in space/time is what she uses to 'teleport' between two points in space."  
  
"How is that possible?" Daisetsu asked.  
  
"I'm not sure," the doctor admitted. "However a colleague of mine in the United States did tell me that the moments that Sailor Sun folded or transported through space, coincided with the spikes they were getting on their space field sensors."  
  
"Space field sensors?" Setsuke inquired.  
  
"Yes... my colleague," Dr. Ikari stated carefully, " is part of a... FTL project that measures the fabric of space for disturbances."  
  
"FTL, what's that?" Setsuke asked curiously.  
  
Dr. Ikari pondered the question for a long moment.  
  
"I can't really tell you," he flatly stated. "That project is supposed to be classified."  
  
The three agents nodded.  
  
"We understand" Daisetsu said. "Tell us doctor, what is your theory on how Sailor Sun can be so powerful?"  
  
"As I stated before," the doctor began. "I believe it is a basic force in the universe that the Senshi are tapping into."  
  
The three agents nodded, again.  
  
"Sailor Sun - I think her power goes beyond that. The power she displayed suggests, as least to me, that she is capable of harnessing energies from multiple dimensions. Another way of putting it would be that she can draw power from many universes."  
  
----------------  
  
"Well that was a wasted week," Setsuke commented tiredly as they left the Tokyo Airport. "We didn't find anything useful to track the Senshi down."  
  
"I don't know," Kitsune said with a hint of whimsy. "We got some good lessons in how to be scatter-brained."  
  
Being tired, weary and starting not to feel too good, Setsuke barely managed to keep herself from hitting her partner.  
  
"What's the plan now?" Daisetsu asked as he lugged his baggage toward the waiting taxi.  
  
Kitsune opened the door of the taxi for his partners.  
  
"We rest up a few days," he said. "Then we hit the files again."  
  
-------------  
  
Friday afternoon.  
  
"You got a package," Setsuke said lazily as she placed a thick, large envelope down on Kitsune's file-cluttered desk. "It's from the United States."  
  
Kitsune looked up from one of the files he was examining and at the large, yellow envelope that his partner placed before him.  
  
"Oh - good," he said enthusiastically. "I was expecting it," as he took the package and tore open one end.  
  
Setsuke looked over at Daisetsu with a cool, even look. Daisetsu, who was weeding through some papers before his attention was drawn by curiosity about the contents of the package, returned the look.  
  
"Good ole Carl. I knew he would come through," Kitsune muttered as he dug through the newly acquired photocopies and photographs.  
  
Setsuke blink-blinked.  
  
"Who's Carl?" she asked, a little annoyed about being tuned out.  
  
"Huh? Oh... sorry," Kitsune said while coming back to the real world. "Carl is an... old acquaintance of mine. He is a retired Chicago newspaper reporter that has a knack for picking up... let's say usual knowledge and information."  
  
"So, what did he send you?" Setsuke asked, her curiosity perked.  
  
As Kitsune resumed sorting through the documents, he spoke distractedly.  
  
"Remember I mentioned the tablet they uncovered in Paraguay?" he asked as the pair nodded. "Well it ended up in the Chicago Museum Archives with four others that were discovered over the years. Each hadn't seen the light of day since they got there. Apparently about five years ago, the one depicting Sailor Sun was extensively studied to determine its age and origin."  
  
He continued to rustle through the papers, stopping to read something every now and then.  
  
"From what Carl has found out, someone took enough interest to actually send a core sample of the tablet for analysis," he continued before falling into silence.  
  
He stopped once again in his explanations to read some of the papers.  
  
"The sample from the tablet ended up and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California," he said as he looked up at his colleagues.  
  
"JPL? Why?" Daisetsu asked, intrigued by the mystery.  
  
"According to this, and this being a 'classified' document," Kitsune emphasized the statement by holding up the sheet of paper that had 'classified' and 'secret' stamped in big, bold letters. "The tablet is made of Moon rock."  
  
"Moon rock?" Setsuke exclaimed. "You mean that it was made from a meteor?"  
  
"No..., the report clearly says that there is no evidence of chemical changes due to atmospheric friction and the shattered quartz from impacting in the structure of the rock."  
  
Setsuke sighed and picked up the envelope and examined it for anything interesting. With the exception of the many postmarks, there was nothing.  
  
"So let me get this straight, you're saying that a picture of Sailor X-"  
  
"Sun," Kitsune interjected.  
  
"Sun," Setsuke continued without missing a beat, "that's at least 7,500 years old -"  
  
"Better make that closer to twenty thousand," he said while handing her a sheet with figures on it.  
  
Setsuke stopped in her summarization to look over what she was handed. Daisetsu looked over her shoulder, from a respectful distance.  
  
"What is 'degree of cosmic ray degradation compared with surface cut measurements'?" she asked, now confused. Kitsune replied by handing her another sheet of paper.  
  
Setsuke raised an eyebrow as she read, while Kitsune commented, "It's like radiocarbon dating for meteors or any other rock that has been exposed unprotected in space."  
  
Daisetsu read the summary of the explanation slowly, because it was in English. "Any rock that is not protected by an atmosphere absorbs cosmic radiation. Once the rock is protected from the radiation, it seeps out slowly over time. The degradation curve follows a predictable curve and is useful for determining when meteors arrived on Earth. The cosmic rays penetrate and are released according to the density of the rock. Any cut or manufactured process releases the comic rays in an uneven way. The difference between the accumulation at the core of the rock and the cut surface can be used to determine an approximate age of the cut."  
  
"These figures can't be right," Setsuke interjected. "According to these figures this would mean that the etching on this tablet is between seventeen and twenty thousand years old."  
  
"And the etching is on a piece of moon rock that arrived on Earth without any of the chemical or geological changes associated with entry into Earth's atmosphere," Kitsune added.  
  
Setsuke blink-blinked before shaking her head of any thoughts. Once that was done, she refocused on the task at hand.  
  
"This... this would mean, that the Moon rock with the etching of Sailor X -"  
  
"Sun," Daisetsu corrected this time.  
  
"- would had to have been brought to Earth, well before the rise of civilization."  
  
Silence fell in the room.  
  
"This is not possible," Setsuke said quietly.  
  
"Not impossible," Kitsune said. "It fits with all the other things I have found out about the Senshi over the years."  
  
Daisetsu looked between Setsuke and Kitsune.  
  
Setsuke sighed, Kitsune's imagination was even sucking her in.  
  
"If there was such a civilization, what happened to it? And why are there no traces or ruins anywhere? Something substantial would have been uncovered by now."  
  
"Because the heart of the civilization wasn't on the Earth," Kitsune said quietly.  
  
Setsuke and Daisetsu fell into silence again and blink-blinked as one at Kitsune.  
  
"Then... where?" asked as she thought about what she had just read.  
  
Kitsune cocked his head at her, smiling broadly, "Guess."  
  
She furrowed her brow, a gave a puzzled look while mentally putting the pieces together. Then it dawned on her.  
  
"You don't mean to tell me you think...," she began before trailing into silence.  
  
Kitsune, still smiling, nodded.  
  
"What?" Daisetsu asked, totally lost.  
  
Kitsune continued to smile, Setsuke turned to Daisetsu and explained, "The Moon."  
  
--------------------  
  
Tuesday, late night.  
  
Rubbing his tired eyes, Kitsune returned to scanning the papers before him. The others, having an left hour ago, leaving Kitsune to finish going through the last few files that were segregated from the mass of files.  
  
Rubbing his eyes again, Kitsune struggled to focus on the file before him.  
  
"Ranma Yonai, age sixteen, hmmmm," he read aloud before he skimmed the contents silently while moving his lips. He stopped momentarily as he let his eyes linger over the photo that was attached, taken of the girl at the aide station. It was a picture of a very pretty redheaded teenage girl, that was... well built girl, wearing an expression of weariness. She also wore a pale pink waitress uniform with the name 'Yoshi Cafe American' stitched over the left side.  
  
Looking away from the photo, he began reading the report from the officer charged with taking her statement. As he read, his instincts for weirdness kicked in and was telling him that something wasn't adding up. He stopped reading and consulted another sheet within Ranma's file and checked it against the page he was just reading.  
  
Now alert, Kitsune brow crinkled and he thought to himself, _"Something not right here, but what?"_  
  
Setting down the papers he stared of into space, trying to nail down what was off about Ranma's statement. Blinking a few times he picked up the top paper from the file and got up, cross the room to a wall were a blown up map of Juuban was pinned over his poster of the solar system.  
  
Reading off some information on the sheet, he traced one finger along the map, stopping at a point midway on a block. Pausing to put a small rounded pin at the location, he then rechecked something and then traced with his hand again in another part of Juuban, this one an intersection. He placed another pin there. He contemplated the two points.  
  
The first pin represented the Yoshi Cafe American, whose uniform the girl was picked up in... and according to the file, where she also resided. The second pin was the location where she was picked up. Between the two points, that were nearly at the opposite sides of Juuban, was the park.  
  
The park where the battle had waged.  
  
_"Well Ranma Yonai,"_ he thought,_ "what were you doing there?"  
  
_Re-reading the debriefing, he found that she claimed to "had gotten lost and confused during the evacuation, and ducked into a shop until the shooting died down". Kitsune thought about the plausibility of that explanation.  
  
He shook his head.  
  
_"I can see getting lost and confused," _he thought. "_But, not that far and not where she ended up. No one could have such an impossibly bad sense of direction to end up way over there."  
_  
After a moment of thought, another explanation came to mind,_ "May be she was watching the fight and tried to get a better view... "_ and stopped that train of though with a shake of his head.  
  
_"If she were doing that,"_ he concluded,_ "she would have been picked up sooner with all the patrols in that area."  
  
_He sighed heavily._  
_  
_"I'll dig deeper tomorrow," _he finally thought as his weariness was catching up to him. _"I'll have Hippie look into her files. It may be nothing, but I'll see what turns up."  
_  
Kitsune sighed tiredly. Deciding to leave it until tomorrow, he knew he would get no more work done that night.  
  
-----------------  
  
Wednesday, morning.  
  
Kitsune walked down the wide hallway on his walk to see Kenjiro or Hippie as he was known. He was the departments resident cracker, computer specialist, and all around sifter of information from cyberspace.  
  
His suspicions were raised. He felt that something wasn't quite right about Ranma Yonai - he felt it in his bones and he was determined to find out what it was. Kitsune was one person within the department he felt was competent enough to find out any information about who this person was. Kitsune hoped that this might be one of the Senshi or at least someone who could give them a lead to them.  
  
Stopping at a door that had a hand scrawled sign taped to it with the words 'Hippie's Lair" on it. Kitsune knocked once, then entered.  
  
Kitsune looked about the familiar and semi-cluttered office. One side had nothing but file cabinets, all neat and tidy. The tops of the cabinets were oversized file folders that would not fit into the drawers, stacked neatly and labeled clearly. The opposite wall was opposite in many ways. Stacks of untidy paper were placed in a miss-mash way. Computers litter the floor space under the long table as three large monitors filled the working space on top. Empty bottles of soft drinks and Pocky boxes littered the spaces in between.  
  
Hippie had quite a collection of hardware and software. All flavors of Windows, Macintosh and Unix operating systems were represented. Even a few custom operating systems that ran on custom built boxes that hadn't and would never see the light of day or ever should. All were available at Hippie's fingertips if he needed them.  
  
Unlike his peers, Kitsune liked Kenjiro, or as others called him by the nick-name 'Hippie'. Hippie wore his hair long and unrestrained which made him look like 'Cousin It' from the Adams Family from behind. The only thing that ruined the effect was the growing bald spot at the very peak of his skull. His clothes were clean, but rumbled looking and his face always seemed to have a five o'clock shadow. Hippie sported dark rimed glasses that Kitsune suspected he wore more for appearance sake than anything else.  
  
He looked and played the part of a die hard geek.  
  
Kitsune really liked Hippie's ability to find out anything on anyone in the government's computers. This came in handy for tracking down suspects that were 'hiding in the system' as it were. There were more than a few times that Kitsune came to Hippie to help in tracking down a suspect with nothing but an alias to work with and he had managed to find some crucial clue or trace for Kitsune to latch onto.  
  
The man himself was busy looking at some code on one of the monitors and didn't appear to notice Kitsune entrance. Kitsune was about to say something when Hippie spoke first.  
  
"Be with ya in a sec, Kits," he said in a gravely voice. "Tryin' to nail down this damn code on these financial records. Would ja believe some highschool chick put this together?"  
  
Not having any comment, Kitsune remained silent.  
  
"Ahh... there we go... come ta papa," Hippie said gleefully before addressing the screen again. "There, that wasn't so hard now was it?"  
  
Hippie punched a few more keystrokes and sent the decoded file to print before turning to face his visitor.  
  
"Hey ya Kits. What's shaking?"  
  
"I need you to find out all you can about this girl," he answered while handing Hippie a photo from a folder he was carrying with him.  
  
"Here's her picture. Her name is Ranma Yonai, see what you can find out about her and let me know." Kitsune said sat on the edge of Hippie's work table.  
  
Hippie took the materials while nodding his head.  
  
Kitsune leaned against Hippie's work table before adding, "Keep it out of official channels. Okay?"  
  
The balding long haired man nodded as he looked at the photo, "I'll get right on it, man. I'll give you a buzz when I find out anything."  
  
Kitsune nodded then added, "Once you find anything, only tell me or Setsuke. No one else."  
  
"You got it man," Hippie replied with a frown. "Wait ta minute, man - here," he said while fishing out and handing Kitsune a nondescript cell phone.  
  
"I have one, thanks," Kitsune said with a wave of his hand.  
  
"But not like this one, man. This baby has a custom encoder built into it. No one, I mean no one, can listen in on our yakkin' without the key. I've been dying to check it out since I got 'em."  
  
"Where did you -? Never-mind," Kitsune said as he took the offered phone. He had long grown accustomed to Hippie and his toys.  
  
"I'll call you on that if and when I find something important, man," Hippie said as he spun round and round in his chair. "Like, I got work to do - so keep it hangin', alright."  
  
Kitsune smiled, "Sure, see you around Hippie - and thanks."  
  
"Sure thing Kits."  
  
------------------  
  
Friday, mid-morning.  
  
"Thanks," Kitsune said as he hung up the phone.  
  
"Who was that?" Daisetsu asked.  
  
"Immigration. I called for some leads," he replied while shuffling papers into a folder.  
  
"From immigration?" Setsuke asked looking up from her work.  
  
"Yes, why don't," Kitsune said while looking at his watch, "we grab some lunch and head over to Nerima."  
  
"Nerima? What's in Nerima?"  
  
"Chinese Amazons."  
  
"Chinese Amazons?" Daisetsu questioned quietly.  
  
"Yes, Chinese Amazons," Kitsune answered as he stretched. "Let's eat."  
  
Daisetsu stared, boggling at the thought of Chinese Amazons. Then with a blink-blink out of his dazed state, he dashed out into the hallway where the two other agents were, and quickly caught up.  
  
-----------------  
  
Setsuke looked around the closed restaurant, that was decorated lightly in a Chinese style that reflected the owner's origins. It was a fairly good size, neat and clean, but had a certain atmosphere of - mystery - that she couldn't quite figure. Daisetsu was off to the side, looking out the window and - doing what looked like picking his nose.  
  
The too bubbly waitress who let them in after they identified themselves as officers, went to get her great-grandmother, who apparently owned and operated the eatery with her. Kitsune was looking at the decor and sniffed the air.  
  
"I still don't know what you are hoping to find out here," Setsuke stated to her partner.  
  
"Oh, I don't know," Kitsune said in a lazy way, "I checked with immigration and these were the nearest Chinese Amazons listed. According to Dr. Jones notes they have a strong sense of history and had actual scrolls that describe the Senshi."  
  
"Chinese Amazons? I can't believe you dragged us out here to speak with Chinese Amazons?" Setsuke asked with a very annoyed look on her face. "We're suppose to be tracking down the Senshi, Kitsune, not listening to old fairy tales."  
  
"Sometimes you can learn something from old fairy tales, young one."  
  
"EEEP!" Setsuke squealed loudly as she jumped toward the ceiling. Daisetsu spun and had his gun half-way out of his holster before Kitsune waved him down.  
  
Kitsune smiled at his partners reaction as he greeted the owner of the Cat Cafe.  
  
They were met by an old woman, a very old woman. She couldn't be more than three feet tall, was troll-like and in one small wrinkled hand held a wooden staff that was at least twice her height. The wore a green one-piece robe that went all the way to the floor and her white hair was held back by an equally white hair-band. Her eyes seem larger than they should for an person her size and were hauntingly old. They seemed to look through them as well as at them.  
  
"Are you Kho-lon of the Chinese Amazons?" Kitsune asked. "_There something familiar about her..."  
_  
"Yes, I am young man," she replied cordially. "Please be seated."  
  
The group made their way over to the nearest table. Kitsune and the other two agents were surprised when the elderly woman hopped upon her staff and pogoed over to the nearest chair.  
  
"Come, sit," she cackled, sweeping her hand to the vacant chairs. "Xian-pu, some tea for our guests."  
  
"No. That's alright," Kitsune speaking for Setsuke and Daisetsu. "You don't mind me saying, you remind me of someone I saw in an old photo."  
  
"Oh? When was this?" she asked, genuinely interested.  
  
Kitsune shook his head, "I don't think it was you, your grandmother maybe. You see, the picture was taken in the thirties."  
  
The old women stared off into space, in contemplation.  
  
"The only picture I remember being in at that time was when a western adventurer made his way to our village," she said, breaking from her thoughts. "We didn't know what to think when he and his friends showed up. We didn't feel he was a threat, so we showed him some of our treasurers, told him some of our history, and sent him on his way."  
  
Setsuke, Daisetsu and the girl known as Xian-pu sat and watched the exchange.  
  
"You must have been one of the little girls, then," Kitsune commented. "You have a remarkable memory."  
  
The old woman cackled loudly. "Hardly," she exclaimed. "I was about... oh, two hundred and thirty at the time."  
  
"Two hundred...? Surly you're joking..." Setsuke rebuked mildly.  
  
"I assure you I am not joking," Kho-lon said in a tone that brook no argument. She gave the younger woman an equally intimidating gaze. "I remember well when the foreigner known as Dr. Jones visited my village - I remember it clearly."  
  
Setsuke felt like a bug under the eye of the older woman.  
  
"S... sorry. It's just..." her voice trailed off.  
  
The old woman, dropped the serious look and cackled again.  
  
"Don't worry about it, young one. I get that a lot. Now, how can this old woman help you?"  
  
"You know about the incident that happen in Juuban, the one with the Senshi?" Kitsune inquired.  
  
"I also remember that well," Kho-lon nodded as she settled more into her chair. "It is good to know that fellow Amazons warriors, ones blessed by the goddess, still exist."  
  
"Goddess?" Setsuke asked.  
  
"Yes. Legend has it that a goddess, a great warrior for peace, selected the finest examples of womanhood to bless with the power of the planets to help protect her realm."  
  
At that point the old women pulled out a pipe and lit it. How she actually lit the pipe was lost to the three agents since no matches were involved.  
  
"Each women," she continued, "was chosen for their knowledge, skill and abilities. Legend also speaks how each woman was selected for various traits. Strength, kindness, grace, tactical thinking, logic and loyalty being a few listed. Each woman represented the very apex of womanhood."  
  
"What about this Tuxedo Mask ?" Daisetsu asked.  
  
Kho-lon waved her hand in a way that was clearly dismissive.  
  
"The goddess," the old woman explained, "not wanting her chosen leader to be lonely, blessed one man - to offer aid and comfort in a fight, as any male should. But little else."  
  
Daisetsu snorted, "You don't get out much do you?"  
  
If Kho-lon was offended, she didn't show it.  
  
"Can you tell us anyway to locate these warriors?" Kitsune asked, keeping a professional attitude.  
  
Kho-lon shook her head.  
  
"According to legend, they only reveal themselves to whomever they choose. I don't think that your efforts in finding them will bear fruit."  
  
"Oh?," Kitsune and Setsuke said in unison.  
  
"Yes. The Warriors of the Heavens were, and I suspect them to still be, very secretive. Even the ancient scrolls handed down from priestess to priestess never mentioned them by their mortal names. Always in their warrior names, each one had a planet eventually named after them."  
  
"I know, " Kitsune said, "that the scrolls where transcribed about three thousand years ago. How far back did the originals go?"  
  
Kho-lon smiled, "You have been reading the notes of Dr. Jones, I see. The originals are nothing more than dust and scraps of fabric now. From what I know about its history, the scrolls were indestructible to the forces of man. Only time can and did touch them. It was handed down through the ages, before there were any Amazons. Exactly how old the original is, I cannot even venture a guess."  
  
"How accurate was the transcription?"  
  
"I really don't know," Kho-lon conceded. Considering the question carefully, she answered just as carefully, "As far as I understand it, the text had been transcribed, symbol per symbol, before the original fell to age. However, the meaning of most of those symbols was lost long before that. What we know of the text itself has been passed down orally from one generation to the next."  
  
"So there is no way of knowing that that the legends you're telling us are actually on the Amazon text," Setsuke stated.  
  
Kho-lon stared out into space, before nodding in concession.  
  
"Of course, the oral legend should have been as accurate to the meaning of the text as possible. But I fear, the - political climates - over the centuries may have influenced and corrupted their true meaning. You do understand?"  
  
Kitsune smiled, "Yes, perfectly - it happens all the time. Even today."  
  
Setsuke, thinking there were better places to be and do asked, "Is there anything else you can tell us about the Senshi? The ones that are around today?"  
  
Kho-lon regarded the question and the person asking it.  
  
"The ones that are around today are the ones that were around then," she answered evenly.  
  
"How is that possible? Kitsune asked. From what we have been able to determine, these legends go back a least fifteen thousand years."  
  
"Time and age do not matter to the blessed ones," the elder answered while closing here eyes to emphasize the point. "They transcend both time and death."  
  
The three agents stared at the old woman. The young teenager sitting next to her was listening to the entire exchange with rapped attention, all along playing with her purple locks.  
  
Setsuke sighed.  
  
"Kitsune, this isn't getting us anywhere."  
  
Kitsune sat for a moment in contemplation, then nodded.  
  
"Thank you for your time Kho-lon," he said as they rose from their chairs. Reaching into his jacket pocket, he retrieved a business card and extended it toward the elderly woman. "If you think of anything that may help us in our investigation, please feel free to call."  
  
Taking the card, Kho-lon responded, "You're quite welcome, and if I remember anything helpful, I will be sure to inform you."  
  
---------------  
  
Tuesday, early afternoon.  
  
_"Why do all the brainiacs have messy offices,"_ Setsuke thought as she was ushered into a fairly large office.  
  
Thank you for your time Professor Royama," Kitsune began the conversation. "We appreciate any help you can provide."  
  
"You're quite welcome. Anything I can do to assist you, I assure you I will," replied a surprisingly young looking scholar. "So tell me, what can a linguist like me do do help two agents from the Nation Police Force?"  
  
"Thank you. First of all, we would like assurances from you that what we are about to give you doesn't leave this office. It is part of an on going investigation and we cannot risk jeopardizing the case because of leaks."  
  
Professor Royama nodded.  
  
"I understand. You have my complete confidence. I will say nothing of this to anyone."  
  
"Thank you Doctor," Kitsune said as he removed copies of the Amazon text. "What can you tell me about what written on these?'  
  
The Professor glanced at the copies handed to him. After a few moments of study, he looked back up at the two agents. He then went behind his desk, took his seat, turned on the desk light and resumed his study - this time in earnest. Looking silently through one page to the next, he would pause from time to time and went back to pages already looked over.  
  
"Where... where did you get these?" he finally asked.  
  
"These are copies of an Amazon text that dates back at least three thousand years," Kitsune explained. "An archeologist by the name of Dr. Henry Jones took the original photographs back in the mid nineteen thirties."  
  
"This is like nothing I ever seen. I'm afraid I can't tell you what's on here until I've had a chance to work on this some," he said distractedly, while sorting through the copies. "Some of these symbols look familiar, but I will have to do some research to be sure."  
  
"We understand, Doctor. About how long do you think it will take?"  
  
He shook his head and rubbed his chin.  
  
"Something like this could easily take months, even years to figure out," he answered.  
  
"How about a rough translation?"  
  
"If I dedicate most of my time and the time of two assistants, it may be possible to get you something in about - two months."  
  
"Anything you can come up with would be appreciated, and please keep in mind that anyone helping you must keep this quiet."  
  
The professor nodded behind his desk, all along jotting something down on a slip of paper.  
  
"Yes... of course," he responded more distractedly.  
  
---------  
  
Monday, late morning.  
  
The phone rang insistently as Kitsune picked it up.  
  
"Hello, Kitsune here," he said into the receiver.  
  
_"I have something for you," _the muffled voice on the other end said quietly.  
  
Recognizing the situation, Kitsune glanced over to see Daisetsu busy reading through the mass of clues and hints before turning his attention back to the phone.  
  
"It's good to hear from you. How are you doing?"  
  
_"You forgot something in your car - I suggest you retrieve it," _the voice ignored Kitsune's ruse for Daisetsu benefit.  
  
"Great, I'll try and see you this weekend," Kitsune said, continuing on with the ruse. "You too. Bye."  
  
"Who was that?" Setsuke asked, as she too plied through the folders before her.  
  
"Just a fishing buddy. He wants to get together this weekend for a bit," Kitsune answered while stretching his back. "Man, I think this chair is going to grow on me."  
  
Standing, he worked the kinks out of his body.  
  
"I'm going to stretch my legs for a bit - any of you want to join me?"  
  
Daisetsu seemed to mull over the offered, but declined. Setsuke shook her head in response.  
  
Kitsune nodded, "Be back in a few minutes."  
  
----------------  
  
The parking garage was surprisingly dark even with its fairly open construction. Kitsune moved into the direction of his car, a small compact model that was very suited for maneuvering around the crowded Tokyo streets. He always parked in the same spot out of habit, regardless of the other open slots that were closer to the elevators. As he approached his dark green vehicle, his eyes searched the shadows - looking for his unknown friend.  
  
"Mr. Murakami, so good to see you," a voice echoed softly in the confined of the garage.  
  
Kitsune stood by his car looking in the shadows, searching for where the voice came from.  
  
"You said you had something for me, Fukai Inkou?" Kitsune asked the voice. Fukai Inkou was not the real name of his benefactor, but it was the only name that they used between them.  
  
"Yes," he answered. "I put it on the front seat of your car. Let no one else see it. Not Mr. Tsuji, not Miss Daishi and definitely not Mr. Momotani."  
  
Kitsune studied the voice as he always did when they had these meetings. He had never met Fukai Inkou face to face, but there were hints that he picked up over the last year that hinted the man was not Japanese. This was suggested by Fukai Inkou's slight, yet unidentifiable accent in his soft voice. Not wanting this source of information to disappear, Kitsune fought his curiosity and never really tried to trace the man down. Fukai Inkou always gave useful and accurate information - much of it top secret in nature and always dangerous if it was discovered in Kitsune's possession.  
  
Opening his car door, Kitsune spied the manila envelope placed carefully on the passenger seat. Scooping it up, he removed the contents - a compact disk and nothing else.  
  
"I suggest you look at that on something other than the laptops that were issued to you, Mr. Murakami," the soft voice echoed.  
  
"Thanks," Kitsune said to the garage. The only reply he got was the sound of a door closing somewhere. Like so many times before, Kitsune knew he was alone again.  
  
Walking back toward the elevators, he took the disk and placed it carefully into his inner jacket pocket for later.  
  
------------  
  
Evening, same day.  
  
Closing the door to his apartment, Kitsune made his way over to his desk. He had to step over the futon that was still on the floor along the way.  
  
Kitsune removed the disk from the jacket pocket and regarded it. It was very nondescript. It didn't even have a manufacture logo or any other markings at all on the slightly dull non-data side. Throwing his jacket over the only chair, he removed his personal laptop from its cubby and placed on the desk. Waking it, he then fed the disk into the slot, which softly whirred into life. Clicking on the CD, he opened the first file.  
  
He began to read.  
  
------------  
  
Late night, same day.  
  
Kitsune was suffering from information overload. The disk that Fukai Inkou gave him was a treasure trove of information. It showed that not only the Japanese government, but many people in high places in various other governments, had been aware of the Senshi and their past. The disk contained copies of files from intelligence agencies from around the world, reports of archeological findings and other materials dating back to the early nineteen hundreds. The disk also had reports from NASA, top secret reports.  
  
The archeological data on the disk was damning enough. It showed that the governments of the world competing for scraps of ancient technology, which were rarer than gold and much more valuable. The governments of the world eventually aligned themselves into political blocks during the cold war and began sharing the secret data among member countries, which explained why the data on the disk was in English, Japanese, Spanish and French - all with cross translations provided.  
  
The NASA files were the most interesting. It showed the space race in a whole new light. A memo dated January 3, 1961 summed it up:  
  
"Evidence of a massive cache of technology is suspected to be buried on the Moon at Ocean of Storms, the Fra Mauro formation and Descartes highlands. This conclusion came from the partial translation of the South African scrolls. The scrolls themselves are made up of complex polymers and a yet unidentified compound that has, so far, defied analysis. The scrolls are partially preserved and seem to date from a time that the chief archeologist in charge, Dr. Jones, has dubbed the Lunar Era. The technology described in the scrolls suggest research and development facilities existed at the above listed locations.  
  
It is imperative that the United States and its allies obtain as much of this technology as possible. Reports from behind the Iron Curtain suggest that the Russians are well aware of these caches and are drawing up plans to retrieve samples from the moon.  
  
Such a project would be too large to hide from the public and covering any future plans for a landing on the Moon shouldn't even be attempted. Instead a campaign of misdirection should be launched and the public declaration of sending a man to the Moon should be enough to feed the public's interest without revealing the true purpose of the landings.  
  
The funding for this..."  
  
Kitsune stopped reading an let his mind turned these new facts over.  
  
_"They knew,_" he thought. _"They've known for at least seventy-five years."  
_  
He sighed._  
  
"Dr. Jones," _he mused while skimming the biography attached._ "I wonder if it is the same Dr. Jones that found and photographed the Amazon text?"_  
  
Kitsune sat back in his chair and exhaled slowly. The later, secret Apollo reports showed that while there was something buried in the Lunar dust, it was too deep to recover at the time. To prove the point, there were some photos of crude seismic measurements showing what could be buried structures. Tantalizing hints of what was.  
  
Later probes to other planets, even the Mars Polar Orbiter, were used to try and locate any remnants of the lost interplanetary civilization.  
  
Along with the historical data were reams of scientific theories and studies on various subjects pertaining to the lost Lunar Era. How an artificial gravity field could be generated on the Moon to keep an atmosphere - which was proven by examining the Moon rocks for traces of atmospheric gases. What kind of power was needed to generate a magnetic field, also proven by the rocks from the highlands. All the studies on the returned samples and the thesis written based on those studies suggested the Moon was terra-formed for habitation.  
  
The most surprising and important finding was the recovery of human bone fragments.  
  
The fragments, identified as pieces of right femur and a pelvis, were found somewhere on the Descartes highlands site proved that humans once lived on the Moon. As far as the report goes the bones were definitely human and the genetic tests on what remained of the DNA confirmed it. Radiocarbon dating showed that the person died about twenty-one thousand years ago.  
  
Twenty-one thousand years before man officially walked on the Moon.  
  
Later dated memos detailed the abandonment of further attempts to recover artifacts that might be on the Moon, until research on Earth could locate an easier cache to get to. Since then, any probe launched to, or going by, the Moon always snapped pictures of suspected sites.  
  
So far, none looked promising enough to justify a manned flight.  
  
On Earth the details were more concrete. The earliest reported finding of anything from the Lunar Era was some glass shards found in central Asia in the 1850's. It wasn't until the shards were examined in detail in the 1970's that the connection was made: the glass was not glass, but some unknown substance. Before that, most of the clues were in tablets and scrolls, many that Kitsune had photos and copies of already. What was new was that there were partial translations of the rune-like writing on them, which was a complex combination of a "component and symbol" language as one translator noted.  
  
_"I'm going to have to cross reference this with the translation that Professor Royama is doing for us,"_ he thought before continuing to look over the materials.  
  
Most of the artifacts recovered, came from Germany after World War Two. It seemed that Germany knew about existence of the Lunar Era long before any other country got wise to it. Many of the functions of the objects that were brought back to the United States remained unidentified as late as 2003, the latest date on the reports on the disk.  
  
The photos didn't offer any clues to Kitsune either. The artifacts and objects looked almost mundane in appearance. Folded metal, long tube-like things and a staff made of unknown materials with a bejeweled crescent at one end of it.  
  
The locations of many of the major sites on the Earth, as mapped out in the ancient texts, coincided with old and prehistoric meteor impacts. Many of the impact dates that were released to the public were deliberately falsified in order to dissuade any suspicion in the academic arena. The fact that the key areas on the Earth during the Lunar Era were devastated by some kind of bombardment, suggested an interplanetary war that laid waste most of the inhabited areas of the world.  
  
Kitsune found that thought very disquieting.  
  
_"That fits into what genetic archeologists have been saying, about a bottleneck in the human genome,_" Kitsune thought as he recalled an article he read in a scientific journal.  
  
The article covered "Genetic Archeology" and went on to describe how the map of the human genome was laid out or studied in an historic fashion. How genetic material was collected from different peoples across the world and from, when possible, remains of ancient people. Attributes were compared from the Mitochondrial DNA from all over and an oddity was uncovered. A genetic "bottleneck" was discovered.  
  
How this "bottleneck" was discovered, was that in the Mitochondrial DNA more traits were being passed on from one generation to the next before a certain point in time. After that point there were fewer traits being pasted on, which meant that fewer people were around to pass on their genes.  
  
The "bottleneck" in the human gene pool, as one researcher put it, could only be attributed to a near extinction level event. What the event was, the researchers didn't theorize.  
  
But Kitsune knew.  
  
The bombardment was enough to take most traces of the Lunar Era with it and almost bring an end to human life on Earth. And if he was right in his guess, it spelt the end of human life on the other planets as well. It was all theory, true - but the time span in which all events happened could not be coincidence.  
  
The genetic "bottleneck" and the bombardment occurred approximately twenty to twenty-two thousand years ago.  
  
Kitsune looked out the window and into the dark night, feeling very uncertain, small and vulnerable.  
  
--------------  
  
Thursday, mid-day.  
  
Before Kitsune could take a bite of the stir fry he'd ordered, the chirp on a cell phone stopped him. Reaching into his jacket pocket, he retrieved his phone and answered it.  
  
"Hello?" he said to the dial tone.  
  
The chirp was heard again.  
  
Startled by this, he set his phone down on the table and patted himself down and pulled another cell phone, the one Hippie gave him, out of another pocket.  
  
"Hello?" he answered.  
  
"Hey man," Hippie's voice sounded over the secure phone. "I found something weird on that chick you wanted me to look up."  
  
"Can't you tell me?" Kitsune asked, a little irritated that his lunch was interrupted.  
  
"Oh no, man. this is something you have to experience yourself."  
  
"Okay, give me..." he said checking his watch, "a half hour and I'll be there."  
  
"Okay man, but be prepared to be freaked, man."  
  
--------------  
  
"Okay, Hippie, what do you have?" Kitsune asked, resisting the urge to say "man".  
  
"Well, first off, man, I started by checking her school records. Ya know, ta see what was up there, right?"  
  
Kitsune nodded.  
  
"This is what I found," Hippie said while pulling files up on his screen.  
  
On the screen was an image of very pretty red head with thin smile on her face, the stats were from Juuban High and contained little information that Kitsune deemed important.  
  
"Okay - so?" he prompted Hippie.  
  
"I'm not through yet man, learn some patience. Now, look at the transfer information," Hippie admonished as he pointed to the relevant lines.  
  
"Okay, she transferred in from Furinkan High School in Nerima," Kitsune read. __ he thought, _That's where that old Amazon lives...  
_  
Whatever Kitsune was thinking was lost as Hippie continued.  
  
"Watch this and be ready to freak out, man," Hippie said as he punched a few keys. The image on the screen was replaced by a picture and information of a handsome teenage boy sporting a pigtail.  
  
"Now read," Hippie commanded.  
  
"Okay, Ranma Saotome," Kitsune read aloud before reading the rest silently as he moved his lips. After finishing he looked puzzled, and then looked over at Hippie who was busy spinning in his office chair.  
  
"Okay, I give up. What's the connection between this guy Ranma Saotome and Ranma Yonai?" he asked the now slightly dizzy man.  
  
The long-haired man stopped in mid-revolution, smiled and said, "They're the same person."  
  
It took a moment for what Hippie said to sink through. Kitsune blink-blinked.  
  
"What do you mean they're the same person? Are you insane?" Kitsune asked with a slight heat in his voice. _"I can't believe that he would call me away from lunch for this?!"_ he thought.  
  
"Hey man, chill, chill," Hippie said while making warding gestures with his hands. "You think I didn't notice? I mean, how can you not, man? One is a dude and the other is a chick - a very hot looking number if I do say so. I'm just showing you what I found, dig?"  
  
Kitsune calmed himself and remembered who he was dealing with. True, Hippie may be a little unpolished in his manners and conduct, but he was very thorough when it came to his work. Taking a few breaths and clearing is mind before continuing.  
  
"How can they be the same?" he asked.  
  
"That's the tricky part. As far as I can tell, this Ranma Saotome got a sex change, adoption into the Yonai clan and transferred to Juuban. Legally. No loose ends or anything," Hippie explained. "But, check these specs, man," he finished by handing Kitsune a file.  
  
Kitsune took the offered file and opened it. Clipped to one side was information on Ranma Saotome, the other Ranma Yonai. He started by skimming the vital statistics. His brow furrowed in thought.  
  
"There's no way that this can be a sex change - the height, the weight, everything is different," Kitsune concluded. "How can they be the same person?"  
  
"Don't know man, but dig this," Hippie handed Kitsune yet another folder.  
  
Opening it he found information on one Ranko Tendo. The photo in the file was no doubt that of Ranma Yonai.  
  
"What's this?" Kitsune asked.  
  
"That Kits, is all the information I found on one Ranko Tendo - and dig this, she doesn't exist."  
  
"Doesn't exist?"  
  
"Yep, she doesn't exist. It was a pretty good job faking those records for passing a quick check, but dig deeper and you find she doesn't exist."  
  
Kitsune was pondering what Hippie told him when Hippie interrupted his thoughts again.  
  
"There's more, dude."  
  
"More?"  
  
"Yeah man, more," Hippie said while reaching for another file. "Check these prints."  
  
Kitsune, already feeling a little overwhelmed looked at the offered file. Reading and examining the documents he looked up at Hippie who was watching him with a grin on his face.  
  
"Cool, huh?" he said.  
  
"This is impossible, this can't be," Kitsune whispered uncharacteristically.  
  
"Nope, had the man himself check it out. Adjusting for the actual size differences, Ranma Saotome's and Ranma Yonai's, aka Ranko Tendo's fingerprints match."  
  
Kitsune looked lost for a moment, then asked, "But how?"  
  
"Hey man, I just find the shit, I don't explain it," came the reply. "That's your job."  
  
Kitsune sighed, thanked Hippie and left, have much to think about.  
  
------------  
  
Kitsune made it all the way into the hall before Hippie followed him out.  
  
"Hey man, I got just one more thing for you," he said as seriously as he could muster. "It's about your new partner Daisetsu."  
  
"Let me guess," Kitsune said while he continued to walk away, "that's not his real name. He works of the Department of Defense, probably the Special Weapons Development Division and he is spying on us, hoping that we lead him to the Senshi so he can try to recruit them for some secret military operations."  
  
Hippie stopped dead in his tracks.  
  
"How did ja know?" he asked incredulously.  
  
Kitsune stopped, turned slightly back toward Hippie.  
  
"Happens all the time," he said over his shoulder with a smirk.  
  
Kitsune turned around resumed his walk back to his office, leaving the speechless departments resident geek behind.  
  
-----------  
  
"I think I found a pretty good candidate," Daisetsu said excitedly to Kitsune as he entered his shared office. Setsuke was absent with a cold that day and wouldn't be in.  
  
"Really? Who?"  
  
"Rei Hino. She lives near the park in some shrine. She was reportedly evacuated by her grandfather and then for some reason showed back up at her home. It may not be much, but it's the only thing I found that is worth checking into."  
  
"What did the report say about her being at home?"  
  
"Nothing. That was the odd part," Daisetsu replied.  
  
"Well, run a background check on her before going and interviewing her. I got a possible candidate myself, as a matter of fact," Kitsune paused to read something in the file he was carrying, "I'll be going back to Nerima to check on her background some more."  
  
Daisetsu looked at him, "That should give you enough time to check out Rei Hino. Next week we'll go and interview both girls and see what they have to say."  
  
Daisetsu nodded, "Sounds like a plan. I'll get right on Hino's background check. What about Setsuke?"  
  
"We'll brief her when she comes in," Kitsune answered as he retrieved yet another file from his desk. "Let's try pulling this together in the next few weeks, the Diets Special Committee wants our report before they release the public one."  
  
Daisetsu nodded, "Check."  
  
"I need to check a few more things before I leave, if you need me - call me on my cell phone."  
  
With a nod and a grunt from Daisetsu, Kitsune was out the door, headed for Nerima.  
  
-----------------  
  
An hour later Kitsune was standing and knocking on the door of a fairly nice, large house surrounded by a high wall. The entryway on the grounds was immaculately kept up and the obvious signs where the house was repaired were now blending into the rest of the structure. Kitsune waited patiently at the door for a response. He raised his hand to knock again, when the door was opened by a young women in her late teens or early twenties.  
  
"Is this the Tendo residence?" he asked politely.  
  
"Yes it is. I'm Kasumi Tendo. How my I help you?"  
  
"I'm Lieutenant Kitsune Murakami, Special Agent from the National Police. I have a few questions on a person who was reportedly living here. May I come in?"  
  
The young woman at the door tensed up and sighed. Her smile waned a bit, but managed retained it with some noticeable effort.  
  
"Of course," she answered while stepping aside to allow entry. "I'll gather my sisters together. I'm afraid my father is not here at the moment."  
  
A few minutes later...  
  
"Now, Miss Nabiki Tendo," Kitsune said while addressing the middle sister, "I am well aware of your legal troubles," the young girl tensed, "but if you cooperate with this investigation, it will be noted and taken into consideration. You understand?"  
  
"Yes sir," she replied politely, not wanting more legal problems to come down on her and by extension, her family.  
  
"I am here investigating a Ranko Tendo and Ranma Saotome. What can all of you tell me about them?"  
  
The room froze, and time seem to stand still as the gathered people stared back at him.  
  
"W...why do you want to know about Ranma? Do you know where he is? Is he in any trouble?" The eldest of the daughters, Kasumi, asked with deep concern in her voice.  
  
Kitsune smiled to himself,_ "Maybe these people know something after all,"_ he thought, however, not wanting to give divulge anything about the true nature of the investigation, he prepared to tell a ready made excuse to cover his real reason for being here.  
  
"Mr. Murakami," Kasumi continued, with a gentle, yet slightly forced smile. "If you have any information on Ranma Saotome, we would appreciate it if you would share it with us. When we are through answering your questions, of course."  
  
"Well, in the normal course of city-wide student records audit," he explained, "Ranko's and Ranma's files were red-flagged. Looking closer at the records it showed one wasn't real, but a fraudulent document. The other was real, but both have been missing from the system for about a year now. Both apparently lived here and attended the same school together before their disappearance. I was sent to find out what happened to them."  
  
Kitsune regarded the people in front of him.  
  
"As far as the whereabouts of Ranma and Ranko," he continued, "I don't know. I was hoping to find out something here."  
  
The three girls seemed to deflate on his words.  
  
Nabiki asked. I mean, why send a special agent to check on a missing person?  
  
Because foul play was suspected by someone up the food chain, he replied casually.  
  
The middle Tendo girl swallowed visibly and fidgeted where she sat.  
  
"Miss Tendo?" Kitsune prompted, looking at the distressed girl.  
  
"Um... Ranko, that is... there was no Ranko. Not really," she worked out.  
  
"I'm afraid I don't understand."  
  
The three girls looked among themselves and back at the agent.  
  
"Do you believe in magic, Mr. Murakami?" The eldest spoke as a statement rather than a question.  
  
Kitsune sighed, put on a serious mask and said, "I work for the Nation Police Agency that has one of our chief inspectors is looking into the actions of a bunch of 'magic girls' over in Juuban. I may not believe in magic per say, but I do believe in unexplained and unusual phenomenon."  
  
The girls looked at him as if they were uncertain of something. He noted that the youngest, Akane - if he recalled her name right, seemed detached from the conversation. She only listened but seemed to make a point not to join in. Her eyes never really looked at him when he spoke, and she seemed to flinch at the mention of Ranma's name.  
  
The silence dragged on a few more minutes.  
  
"You see...," Kasumi began, "Ranma and Ranko are one in the same."  
  
She stopped there and let that statement sink in.  
  
"Sex change?" Kitsune ventured, even though he already knew that was impossible.  
  
Kasumi shook her head.  
  
"No. Magic," she said sadly. "Ranma was the victim of a curse. He fell into a magic spring that changed his form into one of a young girl."  
  
Kitsune held a neutral expression on his face as he though over what he heard.  
  
"I have," Nabiki interject into his thoughts, "some video of him changing. If that will help convince you."  
  
Kitsune nodded absently, and wondered what he got into. The middle Tendo girl left and after a few minutes returned with a tape in her hand. Placing it into the VCR she hit the play button and turned the TV on. Resettling into her place at the table, she used the remote to fast forward, eventually stopping at a familiar spot. Kasumi watched the screen with a look could only be described as sadness or melancholy, the youngest appeared to make an effort not to watch and Nabiki began to explain what he was seeing.  
  
"This is Ranma and his father sparring in the morning. As you can see they are both men at the moment..."  
  
The screen showed what can be describe as an all-out battle being waged between a stocky, over weight looking man in his forties and a pigtailed teenager. The fight looked more like something out of a martial arts inspired fantasy film than anything real. Kitsune was about to ask the relevance of what he was seeing when Nabiki spoke up.  
  
"... watch..."  
  
The pigtailed youth did a spin kick that would have connected with the older mans chest if he didn't block it by crossing his arms before him. The power of the kick did knock the older man into the pond, the same pond Kitsune noted that was in the back yard. Kitsune expected a very wet and irate man to rise from the pond, what arose from the water however, was entirely unexpected.  
  
A panda.  
  
Nabiki paused the video at that point.  
  
"... the man that just turned into a panda is, or rather was Ranma's father. He fell into the spring of the drowned panda. Watch what happens next."  
  
Kitsune heard the young man taunt the panda as it obviously fumed in the waters.  
  
"Gettin' slow, old man?" the youth called out. "Maybe slackin' off and playin' go all day has made you soft - ay, old man?"  
  
The Panda groffed and growled, turning the waters of the pond before pulling out a sign... out of nowhere... that read, "Respect your betters, boy!"  
  
"Show me that you're better," the boy snorted, "and maybe I'll respect yah."  
  
The panda responded by splashing the teen. Kitsune saw it, but for some reason doubted what he saw. He opened his mouth to ask for Nabiki to rewind a bit. She had already, in anticipation of his request, backed the tape up. He watched the scene again, where once was a black haired teenage boy, was replaced by a... very healthy, teenage red headed girl.  
  
"What'dja do that for, you old fart!" the girl screamed before sending the panda into the wall that surrounded the Tendo's home.  
  
The girl turned back and stalked toward the camera.  
  
She stripped off her wet shirt and wrung it out letting the water fall into the yard. She was very exposed, parts of her anatomy were jiggling in interesting ways and all of it captured by the camera. All while doing this, she was oblivious to the the fact she was being recorded and was muttering things that sounded like "stupid old man" and "fat, lazy panda" under her breath.  
  
_"There's no doubt,"_ Kitsune thought._ "That's definitely a girl... with a lot of - er, talent."  
  
_The eldest Tendo girl entered the frame with a kettle.  
  
"Here you go Ranma," she said sweetly.  
  
"Thanks Kasumi, you're the greatest," the red head said with a smile as she accepted the kettle.  
  
In one motion, the topless red head poured the contents over her head. Kitsune watched in fascination as the girl's body dissolved into a much taller and muscular looking male form.  
  
"You're quite welcome, Ranma." Kasumi said brightly on the tape.  
  
At that point, Nabiki stopped and rewound the tape. Ejecting it, she retrieved it and placed the tape before the still stunned agent.  
  
"If you want, you can have that copy," she said quietly. "We have others - to remember him by."  
  
"Thank you, Miss Tendo," Kitsune responded just as quietly. "Tell me, where did Ranma pick up such a curse?"  
  
"China," Nabiki answered. "Somewhere in China, at a place called Jusenkyo."  
  
-----------------  
  
"I need to know about a place called Jusenkyo," Kitsune said while sliding into the booth across from the Amazon elder. "Can you tell me anything about it?"  
  
An unreadable expression cross the old women's face. She sat there, across from him, studying him with aged eyes before replying.  
  
"Would you mind if I ask you where you heard that name?" she asked in a neutral tone.  
  
"Not at all," came his reply. "In response to some - doctored school records, a missing person report had been file on one Ranma Saotome. They sent me out to investigate his last known place of residence."  
  
"Did they now?" Kho-lon said with a cocked eyebrow. "The last time you were through here you were looking for Senshi, now a missing high school student."  
  
"That was a different case, over and done with," Kitsune lied, having been tipped off by Nabiki on Kho-lon's interest in Ranma. "I'll have you know that you were right, our efforts to find the Senshi came to nothing."  
  
Kho-lon smiled at that.  
  
"I knew you would fail, but about Ranma?" she hid her interest well, Kitsune thought.  
  
"I have been assigned to find out why he and a Ranko Tendo are missing."  
  
"So, how did you come across Jusenkyo?" Kho-lon prodded.  
  
"I was over questioning the Tendo's about the two missing people," Kitsune explained. "They told me a incredible story of how Ranma and Ranko were one in the same."  
  
"Did they now? I take it they sent you to me for conformation?"  
  
Kitsune nodded.  
  
"Very well," Kho-lon turned to face the dinning room. "Xian-pu! Come here please."  
  
"My great-granddaughter has been touched by Jusenkyo," Kho-lon explained as the perky waitress bounced over to the table. So much so that Kitsune noted that Amazons didn't believe in bras.  
  
"Yes great-grandmother?"  
  
"This police investigator is searching for your husband." Xian-pu's face lit up when Kho-lon said that. "However, he has trouble believing in Jusenkyo curses. I need you to demonstrate yours."  
  
_"Husband huh? Well that confirms the Tendo girls story so far,"_ Kitsune thought.  
  
"This may help find husband?" Xian-pu asked in broken Japanese.  
  
The elder Amazon nodded.  
  
"Let us retire into the back of the kitchen," the elder suggested. "It will make less of a mess to clean up later."  
  
--------------  
  
Before leaving the Cat Cafe, Kitsune and the Amazons exchanged mutual assurances that if anything was found on the whereabouts of Ranma Saotome, each would inform the other. Both sides knew that this was a mere parting formality, neither side really expecting anything of it. Kitsune's thoughts were in disarray as he staggered back to his car and unlocked its door. Sliding in behind the wheel, he sat there contemplating the turn of events.  
  
He had investigated many weird things over the years, vampires, zombies, strange lights in the sky and even a sea monster reported in the waters between Setana and Okushiri Island up north in Hokkaido. But never before had the weirdness been so... blatant.  
  
_"With all this going on, why in the hell has any of this never been reported?_" he asked himself as he fumbled his keys into the ignition switch.  
  
Watching a young and pretty teenage girl change into a pinkish cat several times was - unnerving.  
  
_"At least the story that the Amazons gave pretty much matched what the Tendo's said."_ He continued to ponder as he sat in his still parked car. He considered his options.  
  
_"Time to pay a visit to the local constable and find out why none of this was ever mentioned in any of the reports from here,"_ he thought as he turned the key, starting the engine.  
  
-----------------  
  
Back at his office, Kitsune looked over the information he had gathered that afternoon on Ranma along with what Professor Royama managed to translate from the Amazon text. Professor Royama's translation was fairly close to what he had already read, however Royama's translation had deviated in some areas. This was due to him also having a background in physics as well.  
  
Reviewing Ranma's files again, Kitsune shook his head sadly.  
  
_"Poor kid. He has lived a life more bizarre than should be legal," _he thought as he looked over the material, idly noting that some of it was illegal.  
  
Kitsune was glad that Daisetsu was not in the office, but wished that Setsuke was well enough to be at work. Maybe he'd pay her a visit tonight and talk about this.  
  
_"What's really interesting is that up to about two or three years ago, his life was relatively free of unusual occurrences,"_ he thought.  
  
_"Sure, he had an idiot for a father,"_ Kitsune continued with his thoughts. _"With, according to the constable's report, cat fist training, multiple fiancées, and a self proclaimed Amazon wife. People coming out of the woodwork trying to marry him or kill him, it's a wonder he didn't go ballistic and kill someone."  
  
_Kitsune sighed heavily._  
  
"But nothing really weird occurred in his life up until one and a half years ago or so when he got cursed. After that, his life was like a runaway freight train, out of control."  
_  
Kitsune sat and studied the files some more.  
  
_"No,"_ he mused. _"Maybe not entirely out of control. Looking at the series of events that lead up to him being disowned, all the legal paperwork on his change of gender and of all the places to end up, why Juuban?"_  
  
_"Maybe fate or something else lead him there."  
_  
Kitsune raked the files into a drawer.  
  
_"With all his training, he would probably be a good soldier," _he thought as he locked his drawer securely._ "Hell, if these reports are to be believed, with his high end ki manipulations combined with his martial arts, he'd made a perfect..."_  
  
Combining that thought with what he read on the Amazon text, a disquieting realization dawned on him.  
  
_"I'll talk to Setsuke, get her take on some of this."_  
  
---------------  
  
Tuesday, late evening.  
  
Kitsune made his way to an apartment block, in Edogawa, not far from where he lived. It was a nice, clean and fairly modern one that would have had a nice view of the Kyu-Edo river if it wasn't for all the other buildings in the way. He traveled up the elevator and got off at a floor that he was well acquainted with. He came to and knocked on the door to the small apartment that housed his partner. After a small wait, a tired-looking Setsuke answered. Setsuke looked at Kitsune and blink-blinked. she was wearing a housecoat.  
  
"Oh, Kitsune," she stated mechanically with fatigue. "Why are you here?"  
  
"I need to talk to you. I think I know what the Senshi are."  
  
That got Setsuke's interest as she opened the door wider and stepped aside to admit Kitsune inside. She lead him into the single room that was her apartment. It was slightly smaller than the one he lived in, but it was more comfortable not being as cluttered. Sitting on a framed futon that also served as her couch and bed, Setsuke faced Kitsune that seated himself in a low sitting easy-like chair.  
  
"Okay, what so you think the Senshi are?"  
  
"Bio-weapons," Kitsune replied evenly.  
  
Setsuke blinked at that.  
  
"Bio-weapons? How did you come to that conclusion?"  
  
"Well, I did some reading and thinking," Kitsune said as Setsuke rolled her bleary eyes. "I think I came across a passage in the photographs of the Amazons text that tells us what the Senshi are."  
  
Setsuke stared at Kitsune as the seconds ticked by.  
  
"Okay, I'll bite. What did you find out?"  
  
"First, I think that Kho-lon told us what she knew. However, not really having any idea or imagining anything that may be attributed to technology, she credited magic."  
  
"Well, I think some writer," Setsuke seeing, Kitsune's point, "I think someone once said something like, 'if technology was advanced enough, it could be mistaken for magic'."  
  
"Exactly," Kitsune said. "It was Arthur C. Clarke, and it was 'any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic'. That's what I think we're dealing with here."  
  
Setsuke rolled her eyes again.  
  
"And your proof?"  
  
"Here," he said, taking a few sheets of printed paper.  
  
"This is a translation of the Amazon text, which by the way is a mixture and variation of ancient languages and some Professor Royama hasn't seen before. I can see where Kho-lon got the idea of 'goddesses' and 'blessings'. If you interpret the translation... a different way you get something more plausible."  
  
Passing her the photocopies of the Amazon text with the translators comments scrawled all over them and a typewritten copy of the translation, he waited for her to read them over.  
  
"Look, Kitsune," Setsuke sighed. "I can hardly focus on anything much less read. From the looks of this, most of the text is still untranslated. So, could you please get to the point?"  
  
Kitsune sighed.  
  
"It's like this, 'blessing' can be interpreted as 'infusion' and these symbols here, they describe-"  
  
"As fascinating as this is, could you give me the short version and skip the explanations for now?" She was feeling tired and puny and she wanted to go to bed.  
  
Kitsune stared at his partner and nodded understandably.  
  
"Basically the Amazon text details how candidates are selected, trained and infused with powers. Powers that gave their wielders the ability to tap into and control massive amounts of - for lack of a better definition - magic."  
  
"Kitsune... ," Setsuke said wearily. "You know you're probably talking about a text, that is for all probable purposes, nothing more than a second hand copy of myths."  
  
"Second hand, yes. Myths, I don't think so," Kitsune defended his viewpoint. "Why would a myth describe a room with obvious machinery, electronics and 'infusion tubes'? The text also has a summary of how the energy, that is 'focused from the planets', is actually fused with the very life force of the host bodies."  
  
"Life force?"  
  
"My guess that the energy is bonded to the aura that all living things generate. Some believe the aura is also the physical manifestation of a persons soul. When you combine that with Dr. Ikari's theory that the powers the Senshi tap into are a universal aura, you kind of get an idea of what's happening. But in any case, the energy is bonded permanently to the host. Not only does the host get 'magical powers' but also an extended life span and they have that energy stay with them after death."  
  
"Transcending time and death," Setsuke said quietly.  
  
Kitsune nodded.  
  
"Imagine," Kitsune spoke in almost a fanatical tone, "a civilization, an old and forgotten one, whose technology was so advanced that the only way it can be described is magic."  
  
Setsuke sighed and looked at him through bloodshot eyes. Pulling a tissue from a nearby box, she blew her nose and leaned back on her couch.  
  
"But what happened to them?" she asked through her stuffiness. "If they were so advanced why did they disappear? Kitsune all you have is some ancient legends, stories and a few tablets. You really have nothing, no real concrete evidence, to base your theories on."  
  
Kitsune thought for a moment about telling Setsuke about the information that Fukai Inkou provided him with, but decided to keep it secret as he had requested.  
  
"It's all circumstantial, I'll agree. But how would you explain it?"  
  
"I don't. I'm not even going to pretend that I know what's really going on. For all I know, we're probably dealing with some high end ki users that got lucky."  
  
"Then you're ignoring the testimony of General Takei and his men. The Senshi infused their weapons with something - and that's something no high end ki user can ever do."  
  
"Kitsune..."  
  
"Look, I uncovered something the other week," Kitsune pressed, "About a girl that may be one of the Senshi. She is a high caliber martial artist and from what I understand, a high end ki user."  
  
Setsuke raised a eyebrow.  
  
"She also used to be a man," Kitsune finished.  
  
Setsuke raised an eyebrow, "Sex change?"  
  
"Something like that," her replied as he held a tape up. "Shall I?"  
  
Setsuke nodded tiredly and wave toward her TV/VCR combo that she kept on a low table.  
  
Kitsune inserted the tape and hit the play button.  
  
Ten minutes later.  
  
"This doesn't prove anything, this could be special effects for all we know," Setsuke said while rubbing her forehead.  
  
"Setsuke," Kitsune said in a very serious voice. "I saw a girl change into a cat with my own eyes this afternoon.  
  
Setsuke stared at her partner through bleary eyes.  
  
"A trick?" she asked.  
  
"No," he answered with a shake of his head. "I even held her hand as Kho-lon poured the cold water on her great-granddaughter changing her. It is no trick."  
  
Setsuke consider this.  
  
"I also checked it out with the local constable," Kitsune continued. "He confirmed everything that the Tendo's and Kho-lon told me as well as what is on this tape."  
  
The room fell into silence as Setsuke digested that tidbit.  
  
"Why wasn't any of this ever reported?" she finally asked.  
  
"Something this fantastic? Who would believe him and what would we do?"  
  
Setsuke pouted in thought, then blew her nose again.  
  
"We probably would tell him to stop drinking on duty."  
  
"Exactly. Sometimes reality is too fantastic or incredible to believe," Kitsune stated. "That is why so much stuff goes unreported."  
  
Setsuke looked at her partner suspiciously.  
  
"You're not going to bring up that vampire thing from last year, are you?"  
  
Kitsune shook his head.  
  
"No, but thanks for reminding me," he said with a smile as Setsuke rolled her eyes.  
  
The vampire case was one that truly strained their partnership, almost to the breaking point. Setsuke almost asked for a transfer. It wasn't so much the bizarreness of the case, but the fact it came at the heels of the zombie incident. Setsuke got over it though, after having some less weird cases come their way. To date, the vampire case had never been solved - at least officially.  
  
"So - what are you going to do?" Setsuke asked while blowing her nose again.  
  
"Tomorrow, I'm going to talk to her."  
  
------------------  
  
Wednesday, late afternoon.  
  
The sky that was clear at the start of the day grew progressively darker as clouds moved in and hovered lowly over the scene. Scattered flurries fell here and there, but so far the snow hadn't invaded Juuban yet. Kitsune and Daisetsu got out of their unmarked police car. Kitsune stood by his opened door and considered the sky, feeling the cold moisture in the air that threaten to overtake them. With a sigh he closed the car door and with Daisetsu, started walking toward the cafe that housed a one Ranma Yonai.  
  
Kitsune stopped in mid-stride, thinking.  
  
"Do you want to take all day with this?" he asked his partner.  
  
Daisetsu considered this, "No, not really."  
  
"Well I'll tell you what," Kitsune said conversationally, "the shrine that Miss Hino lives is just a few blocks over that way."  
  
Daisetsu stared off in the direction Kitsune indicated.  
  
"While I'm talking to Miss Yonai, why don't you go talk to Miss Hino? We'll cut our time in half."  
  
"Well...," Daisetsu pondered. "It's not exactly against regulations... and I would like to finish up early today. I did promise my wife that I would home by the weekend..." After a quick moment he spoke up, "What the heck, it's not like any of these girls are shoe-ins."  
  
"Great," Kitsune said. "I'll meet you back here when your through."  
  
With that, the two agents parted ways.  
  
------------------  
  
The elder Yonai was accommodating in securing a private corner of the empty dining room where he could interview the mysterious Ranma Yonai. The table he was lead to in the just opening restaurant was far enough to ensure no eavesdroppers, but open enough so Akiko could keep an obvious eye on them.  
  
She seemed very protective of her charge.  
  
Soon he was joined by a very pretty redhead. Pretty enough that he wished he was a few years younger, but his professionalism quickly pushed that thought to the back of his mind. Ranma was a puzzle and he was determined to figure her out, even if her figure was slightly distracting.  
  
She was short and in spite of being seventeen, she had not yet reached full mature height. Unlike most girls who almost at their full grown height, this one still seemed to be slightly behind her peers in that department. He would have guessed a late bloomer, except for the fact she was - very well built. Her blue eyes were piercing and her long red hair trailed down her back, in a rope-like pigtail. She wore the waitress uniform that he recognized from the photo of her, taken at the aid station.  
  
"Miss Yonai," Kitsune began conversationally.  
  
The pretty red head nodded nervously and took the seat opposite of him. Kitsune could tell the girl was uneasy, that was understandable considering that she never expected to be interviewed again. Especially by a special agent from the National Police Force.  
  
"I'm just here to ask you a few questions concerning where you were during the battle of Juuban," Kitsune explained, getting to the point. "Would that be alright?"  
  
The red head answered with a nod.  
  
Kitsune eyed her for the briefest of moments before going on to the first question.  
  
"Okay, Miss Yonai -," but he was interrupted as the girl spoke for the first time.  
  
"Ranma, please" she said in a soft voice and thin smile that seemed forced. Everyone calls me Ranma. Miss Yonai makes me sound so old."  
  
Kitsune returned the smile, a genuine one, hoping to put the girl more at ease.  
  
"Okay Ranma," he began again. "Can you tell me how you ended up on the far side of Juuban from here?"  
  
The girl squirmed a bit in her chair before answering.  
  
"Well, not really," she began uneasily. "You see, everything was so confusing that day. At first everyone was everywhere trying to get out, and the next thing I know I'm hiding out in a store waiting for the shooting to stop."  
  
Kitsune studied the way she said her explanation. She came across as if she were coached at the last minute or something. Either way, she was a terrible liar.  
  
"Yes, but do you have any idea how you ended up where you did?" he asked, thoroughly convinced that the girl was holding back on him. "None of the patrols that you would had to get through to get there stopped you, so can you please explain?"  
  
"I really can't... I didn't really pay too much attention," he noticed her eyes shifted around nervously. "I was too busy trying to find Granny and got separated from her during the evacuation... I really can't tell you more than that.  
  
"I see..." he then reached into a small thin portfolio and extracted a group of photos.  
  
"What can you tell me about these girls?" he asked while handing her the stack.  
  
She looked through the stack and looked up at him and back to the photos in hand.  
  
"They're the Senshi," she said flatly.  
  
"I know, can you look at them and see if any may look familiar to you?"  
  
She sighed heavy and proceeded to shuffle through the photos.  
  
"I can't. Their faces are all distorted or something. What am I looking for?" she asked with a touch of edge in her voice.  
  
"I would like you to see if any strike you as being familiar in any way. Anything, no matter how remote at this point, would be appreciated."  
  
She sighed heavier than the last time as she re-flipped through the stack. This time she was naming them quietly to herself, but loud enough for Kitsune to hear.  
  
"This one is Mercury... Moon... Uranus... Mars... Sun... Neptune... Venus... this one is Venus and Jupiter... and Saturn."  
  
Kitsune's heart stopped. The young redhead sent a alarm bell ringing in his head, but why?  
  
"Nope, they just look like pictures of the Senshi," she said as she handed the stack back across the table. "Just like the ones I've been seeing everyday in the newspapers."  
  
Kitsune took the stack of folders back and froze in mid-reach. He then took the stack and looked through them himself. Then it clicked.  
  
_"Sun,"_ he thought. _"She knew that this was Sailor Sun. That information hasn't been made public yet. It might be wishful thinking on my part... I have to be sure."  
_  
"Miss... I mean, Ranma, would you mind naming the Senshi for me again as I hold up each of their pictures?"  
  
Ranma responded by blink-blinking and him, shrugging her shoulders and then finally nodding.  
  
"Okay, I guess."  
  
He held on the first one.  
  
"Sailor Mercury."  
  
Next.  
  
"Sailor Moon."  
  
Next.  
  
"Sailor Uranus."  
  
Next.  
  
"Sailor Mars."  
  
Next.  
  
"Sailor Sun."  
  
Kitsune hesitated for the slightest of moments before going to the next one.  
  
"Sailor Neptune."  
  
Next.  
  
"Sailor Venus."  
  
Next.  
  
"That one has Sailors Venus and Jupiter."  
  
Next.  
  
"Sailor Saturn."  
  
Kitsune stared at the red head across from him.  
  
"You seem to know your Scouts," he commented.  
  
"Well... like I said, you really can't help knowing their names when they're in the newspapers for weeks," she said in a half retort.  
  
"How about this one?" he asked as he held up the picture of Sailor Sun.  
  
"Sailor Sun? What about her?" the teen asked, slightly tense.  
  
"How did you know that this is Sailor Sun?" Kitsune pressed.  
  
The teenager blink-blinked at him again, not really understanding what he was getting at. She shook her head slightly.  
  
"I already told you," she snapped in a slightly strained voice. "Her name and picture have been in the newspapers since the battle."  
  
Kitsune gave the girl a level gaze that seemed, judging from the look on her face, to unnerve her. Then his expression changed to a neutral one as he started to consider a few things.  
  
_"That information has not been made public,"_ he thought to himself. _"The only people that should know that Sailor X is Sailor Sun are the military personal that were at the command post, Dr. Ikari who is still in the Arctic and the Sailor Scouts themselves."_  
_  
_He regarded the fidgeting teenager before him, _"She knows something or maybe she is even one of them. But, I don't want to really press too hard." _Pursing his lips he thought more deeply before giving his hostess a comforting smile, _"If I want to pursue this more, I'll know where to find her - besides I want to hear what she says about her curse."  
_  
"Thank you for cooperation, Ranma. Do you mind if I ask a few more questions - about you personally?"  
  
Ranma looked at him with what was clearly suspicion in her eyes.  
  
"Okay," she nodded. "As long as its not anything perverted."  
  
Kitsune stared back at her with a quizzical look, until it dawned on him that Ranma must get hit on a lot.  
  
"No, nothing like that," Kitsune said while making warding gestures with his hands. He leaned back in his chair and thought carefully about his next question. "Ranma can you tell me your relationship is with Ranko Tendo is?"  
  
Caught off guard by the sudden question, the girl looked like she was going to fall out of her chair.  
  
"Ah... why do you ask?" she finally worked out after composing herself.  
  
Kitsune sighed. He was putting on a good act and knew the truth from what Nabiki Tendo had told him and what the Amazon's demonstrated the previous week. He wanted Ranma's side of it as well as confirmation.  
  
"Ranma," he said in an even and oh-so-authoritative way. "I did a background check on you and the last time you were registered in the school in Nerima, you were a lot taller, weighed more and were definitely male. And the only photo of you as you are now was a student ID photo of a Ranko Tendo. Her records proved to be fraudulent under closer examination and I far as we were able to determine, she never existed."  
  
He pause to let the words sink in. They must have for Kitsune saw the girl pale a bit.  
  
"Now," he continued in the same tone of voice. "I would like some answers. Please."  
  
Ranma appeared to stare at an interesting invisible speck that was on the table, a heavy silence fell between the two. After a few minutes of this, Kitsune was preparing to broach the subject again when Ranma spoke up.  
  
"You won't believe me," she said quietly still looking at the tabletop.  
  
"Ranma," Kitsune said softly, yet firmly. This had the effect of drawing her attention away of the tabletop.  
  
With a disarming smile he continued, "I have been with the Special Investigations Department for a little over two years. In that time I have investigated what would be called normal things like dangerous cults, organized crime and bank robberies. A long with that I also had to investigate... more unusual things like monsters, ghosts and now magic girls. Believe me when I tell you, there nothing you can say that I would consider too fantastic."  
  
The girl sat quietly, studying him. She cocked her head and then an eyebrow.  
  
"Okay," she finally said. "First, have you ever heard of a place called Jusenkyo?"  
  
He shook his head. Even though his talk with the Tendo's and Kho-lon's demonstration had revealed the nature of the place, he feigned ignorance to get Ranma's point of view. Part of investigating anything is never letting on how much you know, especially to a prospective suspect.  
  
"Jusenkyo is - 'is the legendary training ground of accursed springs'," she said in a mock Chinese accent before continuing normally. "It is a place in a small isolated valley in the Quanjing Range. I was told that there are more than one hundred springs, each one is cursed."  
  
"Cursed? How?"  
  
Ranma sighed.  
  
"Well," she began. "Anyone or any animal that falls into one of the springs takes the form and, depending on the spring, the personality of whoever or whatever drowned there."  
  
"So if I were to fall into the spring of drowned rabbit, I would turn into a rabbit?" Kitsune asked.  
  
"Yes, and you could change back with hot water, until you got hit with cold water. That would turn you back into a rabbit."  
  
"Are these curses permanent?"  
  
"Yes, I believe so. At least, when I was searching for a cure, I never heard or found a one that really worked."  
  
"So what spring did you fall into?"  
  
Ranma blinked before she gave him an exasperated look.  
  
"I thought it was obvious, I fell into the spring of drowned girl."  
  
He already knew that, but the confirmation was welcome.  
  
"So you're really a boy?" he asked, playing dumb. He also wondered how she would answer.  
  
"I'm a girl, dammit," she shot back, crossing her arms in front of her, an act that accentuated the fact. A shocked look crept onto her features as she sat there in self contemplation. After a moment of this, she descended into a fit of giggles.  
  
"Is there something funny, Ranma?" Kitsune asked, confused by her behavior.  
  
"It's just that... hee, hee, hee... that I used to say... hee, hee, hee... 'I'm a guy' for so long after I got cursed... hee, hee, hee... and to hear me now..." she continued to giggle, settling down after a few moments.  
  
After the giggles subsided, Kitsune smiled and asked, "So I take it you fell into one of the springs that changed your personality as well as your form."  
  
Ranma's eyes lit up on that, "Er... yes. Yes! That's it! That's exactly what happened. I was a boy, now I'm a girl."  
  
"Can you demonstrate this curse?" he asked.  
  
Ranma froze.  
  
"I guess so... I don't really want to... but if it'll help convince you," she said meekly with a hint of fear her voice.  
  
Kitsune regarded the girl and came to a decision. Ranma had already confirmed the stories he got from the Tendo sisters and the Amazons and saw no reason to make Ranma any more uncomfortable than she was. He could bring up the people he talked to in Nerima, but after talking to the local constable, decided against it.  
  
Recalling the records of Ranma's life since she came to Juuban, she seemed to be well adjusted, hard working and well liked. From what he found, she had managed to catch up to her peers academically, and her teachers expected her to surpass many of her fellow classmates. So completely different was Ranma now, from the one reported in Nerima that it would be easy to think of them as two different people.  
  
_"Poor kid doesn't need that kind of life following her here anyway,"_ he thought as he smiled at the now very nervous girl. _"Besides, if she is one of the Senshi, the last thing I want to do is piss her off."  
_  
With that, he let the now slightly sweating redhead off the hook.  
  
"No," he said was a smile, "I won't ask you to do that unless I have to. Your willingness to do so was enough to convince me."  
  
Ranma left out a breath of relief.  
  
Kitsune smiled and spoke with humor, "I guess you are a magic girl after all..."  
  
The girl looked as if she were on the verge of panic.  
  
"... just not the one I'm looking for."  
  
Ranma visibly calmed.  
  
"I thank you for your time and cooperation, Ranma," Kitsune said as he rose from his seat and bowed slightly toward the still seated girl. "I don't think I'll need to talk with you again, but just in case you think of anything about the Senshi, here," he handed her a business card which she took without though, "don't hesitate to call me."  
  
"Yeah... sure," she replied absently, stunned at the sudden end of the interview.  
  
-------------  
  
Walking outside after being shown the door by Ranma, Kitsune waited for his eyes to adjust to the bright sunlight before moving toward where he parked his car. The clouds had dispersed while he was questioning Ranma and the fresh patches of snow on the pavement were testimony to a brief snowfall that visited. He began his short trek back to the car, all the while he mentally reviewed the interview with Ranma.  
  
_"There is no way _he thought to himself,_ that she could or should have known that Sailor X is Sailor Sun unless she was told by someone on the general's staff, which is unlikely or..."  
_  
He stopped and looked back in the direction he came.  
  
_"... she's one of them."  
  
_Continuing his walk to the car, his footsteps leaving trails in the virgin snow, he thought more deeply. _"She was defiantly jumpy about talking about it and she's a lousy liar, too. It could be typical girlish behavior, but I doubt it. She is involved, somehow. I'm definitely not going to tell Daisetsu. He'll probably have Ranma brought in for more intensive questioning and I don't want the Senshi becoming someone's military plaything."  
_  
Approaching the car, Daisetsu was already there leaning on the side of it.  
  
"How did it go?" asked Daisetsu.  
  
Kitsune shook his head, "And you?"  
  
"Same," Daisetsu answered. "She told me, rather matter-of-factly that she thought she would be safe at the shrine because the wards would protect her from evil."  
  
Kitsune shook his head, "Stupid girl."  
  
"What now?" Daisetsu asked while opening the passenger side door.  
  
"Well, we have two other girls to interview, but they are longer shots than these two. After that, more leg work and see what comes up."  
  
Daisetsu sighed as he slide into the passenger seat, "This is getting old."  
  
Kitsune only nodded his agreement, "Happens all the time."  
  
He took his place behind the wheel and soon they were gone.  
  
-----------------  
  
Two weeks later...  
  
"We have reviewed the report that you and officers Daishi and Momotani have prepared," the chairman of the committee said. "Is there anything that you wish to add?"  
  
"No sir," Kitsune said politely into the microphone. "I feel that the three of us have covered at much ground as we could in the time allotted to us. The fact is that in spite of the historical data we have been able to uncover - there is just not enough hard evidence today to trace these girls down."  
  
"Do you think they are a threat?  
  
"No," he answered while shaking his head. "They had the power to be a threat a long time ago. If they were going to do something that compromised the safety and security of Japan, then they would have done it long before now. If anything, from our research they seem to have gone out of their way to ensure that no innocents are harmed in their confrontations with the many entities that they fight."  
  
"And this new Scout... Sailor X, are you sure about her Senshi name?"  
  
"Yes sir. This is based on the interviews of the General Takei and his staff. Also there is historical record of the Sun being used in the naming of one of the Senshi. For all appearances, this seems like her."  
  
"Tell me, Lieutenant Murakami - do you believe in what the report says about a lost kingdom that ruled the Solar System from the Moon? It seems more like science fiction than reality."  
  
"I don't disbelieve, sir," Kitsune responded evenly. "If someone were to come up to you, say just six months ago and told you that we would face an invasion from another dimension, and it would be thwarted by a group of magic girls... well, chances are you would have seriously doubted the man's sanity."  
  
"Point taken Lieutenant Murakami," the chair said with a smile. "How do you recommend we proceed from here?"  
  
"At this point, I recommend that we keep the case file open for any new information that comes our way," Kitsune paused a moment. "But we don't actually pursue the Senshi until more facts present themselves."  
  
"Questions?" the chairman directed toward the other members of the committee. He was answered by several men, shaking their heads. " Then on behalf of this committee, I thank you and your colleagues for your time and efforts in this."  
  
"You're quite welcome, sir."  
  
---------------  
  
It was night.  
  
The city, except for a few, was asleep. The cold winter air invaded the wide avenues and alleys of the great metropolis known as Tokyo. In an apartment in the northern part of the city was a man that riffled through a mass of papers and folders that crowded his desk.  
  
Kitsune leaned back in his chair and looked about his apartment. An apartment that, in the last few weeks, he spent little time in. He looked around his desk. Scattered around and slowly getting collated into the files he already possessed, were files that he carefully copied from the investigation and secretly smuggled home with him. Among his ill-gotten gains were photocopies of classified files from the JPL, courtesy of a retired reporter in Chicago, Hippie's files on Ranma Yonai, a partial translation of the Amazon text, a CD from Fukai Inkou and a VHS tape.  
  
Looking over his bounty, he sighed and removed from under his desk and old electric typewriter, a gift from Carl on their first and only face to face meeting four years ago. Plugging it in and turning it on, he rolled a sheet of paper into the rollers and contemplated the blank sheet before him. Hesitating as his fingertips touched the keys, he continued stare at the blank paper. Gathering his thoughts, he began to type.  
  
"There is little doubt in my mind that the young woman, formerly male, that goes by the name of Ranma Yonai is involved in some way with the Senshi. To what extent is the question. Researching her past, she is a martial artist of the highest caliber. From what I can gather from the police reports from Nerima, when she was a he, Ranma was a regular fixture in fights that were known to destroy thick concrete walls and light poles.  
  
Is Ranma a Senshi? With the chaos that followed her where ever she went until she moved to Juuban, it seemed almost like fate had pushed her in toward a predestined outcome. It seemed that something wanted Ranma in Juuban for a purpose and the only purpose I can think of is to aid or become a Senshi.  
  
What can the purpose of the Senshi be? They have, according to local legend, been fighting daemons and other creatures, creatures that have injured innocent people before being rescued by the Senshi. This had been going on for at least the last two years that the Senshi have been making their regular appearances. I have decided to not pursue my investigation independently, lest I raise suspicions with the likes of people like Daisetsu. I feel confident that the Senshi mean us no harm and are willing to go to great lengths to protect us.  
  
The only other questions I have is where have the Senshi been for the last fifteen to twenty thousand years? And what power that their enemy or enemies have that could have defeated them so long ago? Is that power still around and does it pose a threat today? Is the power that defeated them in the past the same one that they are fighting today? Is this a war and how long has it been going on?  
  
I have no doubt I'll get my answers. I just need to be patient and keep my eyes open - and keep tabs on a certain boy turned girl and see what happens."  
  
Kitsune looked at the freshly typed page and reread it, all the while silently moving his lips. Shaking his head slightly, he removed the sheet from the typewriter and placed it in a folder that was atop of the stack. Stuffing the pile of folders with one CD and one VHS tape into a file box, he then moved the box under his desk. There it joined other file boxes, some covered with a thin film of dust. Shutting off the typewriter, Kitsune stared out into the night, and thought about things that go bump in the night.  
  
Sighing heavily he reached over and turned his desk-lamp off. The room was plunged into darkness.  
  
It was time for bed.  
  
------------------------------  
------------------------------  
  
This little baby had quite a history. The first four thousand words I laid down on it, I didn't like after re-reading it. So I started brainstorming and restarted this while in the waiting room. (Long story - I don't want to go there - ever again.)  
  
Anyway, I sat and thought about what I didn't like about what I had written. As always when I think too much, I promptly fell asleep. After my unexpected nap, I decided my first draft was too cloak and dagger-ish, too complicated, busy, and dull. I then started searching for a different angle.  
  
The inspiration for this is not obvious as it may look. I was thinking of the old Night Stalker television show (1974) with a government angle. Then I realized that the Night Stalker with a government angle was the X Files. So I ran with it - talk about coming full circle.  
  
I also turned this into an experiment in 'winging it' . As some of you may recall, I try to outline things - until I lost my notes. Now I'm playing with different ways of writing and seeing what works best. For this experiment, I tried and writing the beginning and the ending first, then research and fill in the details from one end to the other. I don't know how well this would work on multi-chapter stories, but it seemed to come together okay on this one.  
  
Thanks go out to Ghost in the Machine, who pointed out when some of my writing got too goofy from the stress from the "I don't want to go there" part of my life this last month. It's amazing what seemed like a good idea at the time, once pointed out or questioned by someone else, makes you wonder "what in the hell am I thinking?".  
  
In the end, I hope all of you enjoyed this. 


	20. University part 1

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

---------------------

---------------------

University - Part 1

--------------------

Mid April.

Komaba-Todaimae Station, near the Komaba campus.

Ranma basked in the warm hug from Akiko.

Disengaging just enough to lean back, Ranma looked into Akiko's hazel eyes. Ranma smiled widely, putting up a brave front. They were on the crowded Metro Rail platform, giving each other their last minute goodbyes. Off to the side, Ranma's uncle Shoji was standing by, observing the scene.

"You have everything you need, dear?" Akiko asked the redhead.

"Yes, Granny," Ranma responded with a slight, but fake, upbeat tone. "Are you sure about this? I mean..."

"Ranma," Akiko broke in, "we already went through this with Michiko a month ago. Yes, I'm sure."

"But, Granny, I still worry about the cost of living on campus and it's not really that far from..."

"Shhh... we've already been through all that," Akiko said while hugging Ranma closely.

Ranma sighed as she returned the hug in earnest. She reflected on the last few months when her and Michiko were first accepted into college. The first thing they both did was to draw up plans on how to get to school and still help out at the restaurant in the evenings. Those plans were soon derailed by Granny. Even though Ranma felt she was not really that far from home, Akiko had insisted that her and Michiko live at the school dorms.

"Everyone needs to learn to live on their own," she said to them. "If you don't try, you'll never learn to make decisions for yourself."

"But, the extra cost of - " Michiko began to protest, only to be cut off.

"Is well within the family's ability to cover," Akiko stated.

Michiko and Ranma blink-blinked at Akiko.

"We are not as poor as you think, but we are not rich by any means. Education is important," Akiko smiled, "and depending how you budget you can probably squeak by, but more than likely you'll have to find part time jobs somewhere. But as far as most of the expenses - the family can help cover them."

"Then why can't we stay here?" Michiko asked. "I mean, we can try to schedule our classed to be back here and..."

"And I'm not going to be far, I'm only going to be -," Ranma tried to add.

Akiko shook her head, cutting both protests off.

"There is more to education than learning what is being taught in the classrooms," Akiko explained to the two younger girls. "There's learning to make your own decisions, being your own person, learning who your truly are - learning to be an adult."

The sisters blink-blinked at their grandmother.

"You see, there is more to university than just book learning."

Returning to the here and now, Ranma shook her head and smiled at the memory. Michiko and her had never been successful when it came to arguing with Akiko. Ranma leaned back to look into her grandmother's eyes again.

"I'm just going to miss you guys," she lamented quietly.

Akiko smiled and again drew Ranma into another embrace.

"We'll miss you too - and you know your uncle is going to miss doing karaoke with you," Akiko said while shooting a look to said person.

Said uncle smiled mirthfully in return.

Ranma giggled as she returned the embrace.

"Besides," Akiko continued. "If you have the time between studies, you can always visit. Michiko won't be able to come home more than once a month."

Ranma sighed softly as her mind drifted back to two days ago when she helped her sister Michiko move into her dorm room. The mood was light hearted when they started. It turned more serious when it was time to say goodbye. First Michiko started to cry saying how much she was going to miss her and Akiko and before you know it Ranma started crying as well. Then Akiko joined in.

It had been quite a scene.

A question from Akiko brought Ranma out of her thoughts.

"If I recall correctly, isn't one of your friends is going here too?"

Ranma nodded at this. Ami Mizuno was attending Tokyo University. She was beginning her studies into becoming a doctor, like her mother. She was living in a different dorm though.

"Now, are you sure you have everything you need?" Akiko asked.

Ranma smiled, "Yes, Granny. I'm sure."

Akiko returned the smile while disengaging herself from Ranma's embrace.

"Good. Now if anything happens, be sure to call. Remember, family watches out for family."

"Only if you promise to do the same," Ranma said using the same puppy-dog eye of persuasion that she learned from Usagi.

"Of course dear," Akiko answered beaming at her granddaughter. Any further conversation was stopped by uncle Shoji motioning to Akiko. Juuban was too close for any trains from this station to stop at, so the bus was the way to go.

"Our bus is coming dear, we have to go," she told Ranma with a reassuring smile.. "We'll see you at the matriculation ceremony in a few days - take that time to relax and learn your way around."

"I will," Ranma answered as the loudspeaker blared again.

With one last quick hug, Akiko joined Shoji as they boarded the bus that, with one transfer at Shibuya, would take them home.

Ranma's home too - a home that was only three miles away, by roof hopping. Further if you bothered with all the streets, buildings, and other annoying obstructions.

Her smile waned.

So she stood at the platform and spied her family by a window peering back at her. Ranma re-plastered a smile on her face and waved at them through the Plexiglas windows of the bus. Inside the bus, Akiko and Shoji waved back at her.

Because of Nekomi Institute's opening ceremonies that were being held later that afternoon, Michiko couldn't make it. Not being able to say goodbye to her sister one last time made Ranma slightly depressed, but she smiled and waved. Hoping that her family wouldn't catch on to her uncertainty and nervousness.

This was her family she was saying goodbye to, the ones that had cared for her than anyone else in her life. She knew she should be happy. She was going to Tokyo University. Only the best get in there - it wasn't like she would never see them again.

_"But what if something happens while I am gone?" _That thought had plagued her mind the last night at home. But this was an opportunity, an opportunity that she couldn't pass up. One that she never would have even imagined just two short years ago. Ranma's adventures in the past, with their many hardships and trials, seemed tame in comparison for some reason to the situation she found herself in.

_"When I get up tomorrow,"_ she thought. _"I won't be seeing Granny, sis, or any of my friends."_

As the buses air brakes hissed, Ranma watched as it moved off into the urban jungle that was Tokyo, Ranma felt a wave of homesickness wash over her.

She stayed and watched until the bus had completely disappeared and a bit longer after that. Until she was alone on the platform surrounded by a sea of people as they milled about. She continued to stand where she had waved goodbye to her family, wishing that somehow if she stood there long enough, she would be back with them again.

She felt depressed.

The bus was gone, all that remained was the heavily trafficked road that it traveled on. The road that could, if she wanted, take her home in thirty minutes or so.

She felt more depressed.

_"I hope learning to be on my own is worth this," _she thought despairingly.

Ranma sighed as she turned and headed back toward her dorm.

---------------

Elsewhere, in a secluded alleyway not far from the back gate of the Komaba campus, another parting scene was taking place.

"Do you have everything you need?" a man with grey hair and mustache wearing glasses with squarish frames asked his younger companion.

"I think so," the young pigtailed man answered uncertainly.

The elder man smiled at the younger ones obvious insecurity.

"It'll be alright Tenchi," the elder man said re-assuredly with a smile. "With Washu's new and improved inter-dimensional tunnel, you can visit home anytime."

Tenchi paled a bit.

"Um.. thanks, grandfather," Tenchi said as he swallowed hard. "But I'm looking forward to being on my own for a while."

Tenchi's grandfather, Yosho, smile broadened somewhat. He knew that the last year had eroded Tenchi's good nature to the point that he was slowly starting to resent the intrusions the others made in his life. It didn't help matters that the lad's father approved of the girls infringement into his son's privacy, just so he could have more of an opportunity to peep. The resentment that Tenchi was building was slowly being directed toward the others in the household.

With the exception of himself and Sasami. After all, no one could get angry at Sasami.

But it was the girls sometimes over-enthusiast pursuit of Tenchi had made him - somewhat more standoffish when dealing with members of the opposite sex than ever before. It was obvious to Yosho that Tenchi needed to get away. With him enforcing this on the home front, he would see to it that the girls wouldn't interfere with Tenchi's life. Yosho made it clear, on Tenchi's behalf, that another "Mr. Surveillance, the Washu Special Ultra-Compact Spy Camera" would not be tolerated.

Nor any unauthorized inter-dimensional tunnels.

Tenchi had developed a lot of stress in the last year. He needed time to mature into the man he would become without the pressure of the girls fighting over the right to claim him.

The girls would fight over Tenchi, as he put it, "as if I were a hunk of meat, caught in the middle of a pack of hungry dogs". It would only be a matter of time before Tenchi's good nature eroded completely with - unfortunate consequences - for all involved.

Yosho realized Tenchi was really starting to resent that.

Yosho sighed thinking about the outrageous behavior of Ryoko, Ayeka and sometimes Washu displayed at times. Usually with great destruction around the house. So when Tenchi finally put his foot down, Yosho backed him.

So in the last four months or so, the girls had been on their best behavior - for the most part. The most part being that when one of the girls felt that the other was 'out behaving' her, she would it turn try to 'out behave' the other. This 'out behaving' the other was rapidly taken to ludicrous proportions - who knew that behaving one's self could turn into a competition that in the end spurred its own kind of fighting.

Yosho remembered that and the reaction that Tenchi had - shaking his head at the insanity of it.

"I understand," Yosho said while continuing to smile. "Just don't forget to write."

"I won't," the younger man promised. "You better get going - I'll see everyone at the next school break."

Yosho nodded as Tenchi looked about to reassure himself that they were still alone and unobserved. He removed a string that was wadded up from his pocket and threw it toward one of the walls of the alley. On its flight, the string unballed itself and clung to the brick wall. The string glowed and spread over the surface of the rough bricks, smoothing them out. When the glow faded, a old, wooded door appeared where once was solid wall.

The older man reached for and turned the just formed knob, pausing he turned back to his grandson.

"If you need anything, don't hesitate to call," he said. "And be sure to keep up with your sword practice."

"I will," Tenchi replied with a smile and a nod.

Yosho opened the newly formed door, as he did so a pair of heads poked through from the other side.

"Tenchi!" a pair of voices sang out.

Tenchi smile faded as he closed his eyes and counted to ten. Affixing the best smile as he could muster, he opened his eyes and addressed the newcomers.

"Ryoko, Ayeka how good it is to see you," he said evenly while holding his forced smile. "I thought we said our goodbyes already."

Both girls, one with wild, light cyan colored hair the other with deep purple hair tied back in long twin pony tails, looked upon the young man with slightly guilty expressions.

"And I thought we had agreed to no unexpected visits," Tenchi continued in his even voice. "What are you doing here?"

"Um... we just wanted to say goodbye one last time that's all," Ayeka said hesitantly while shooting a look and nudging her cyan-haired companion.

"Yes! That's it. We just wanted to say goodbye, that's all," Ryoko agreed.

Tenchi and Yosho gave the women a guarded look, before Tenchi sighed loudly.

"Very well. Goodbye Ryoko. Goodbye Ayeka, " Tenchi said neutrally bowing to each girl in turn. "I'll see both of you during summer break. I expect no unexpected visits, no fighting while I'm gone, and no random acts of destruction in or around the house. Okay?"

Before both girls could say anything more, Yosho gently closed the door part-way on them - forcing the girls back to where ever they came from. The elder man turned to face the younger.

"You don't worry about them. I'll make sure everything is fine at home," he said just loud enough for the women to hear from the other side of the door. "Now you, young man, keep your grades and sword training up."

"Yes, sir," Tenchi said with a genuine smile.

Yosho nodded and pulled the door full open where two girls, who were pressed against it from the other side, fell into a heap on the ground. Yosho sighed.

"Come along, ladies and leave Tenchi to himself. You'll see him soon enough."

Uncharacteristically and without protest, the two women followed the man through the doorway where upon the door swung shut behind them. Upon closing, the door glowed and shrank until it became a thin line upon the wall. Tenchi walked up used his fingernails to peel the string from the wall and then balled it up, sealing it. Taking the wad, he shoved it into his pocket. As far as he and others were concerned, this was the only authorized inter-dimensional portal between himself and home - and he held the keys.

And there better not be any others.

Looking around, he nervously sighed out in relief that the whole affair went unobserved. Tenchi then turned and headed toward the direction of the campus.

-------------

Stopping just outside the main gate, Ranma looked at the campus where she would basically call home for four months. Like many of the other students that were now flowing past her, she would spend the first two years of her undergraduate studies here before moving on either to the Hongo or Kashiwa Campuses for her last two years.

_"This is not quite what I thought it would be like," _Ranma thought as she resumed her walk, moving with the same pace of the crowd. Her depression lifted as she did so.

Ranma was impressed as she looked about the almost park-like and inviting campus. This was not what she was expecting. She was envisioning a cold, serious, and sterile environment - where students did nothing but study and take tests.

_"This is nice,"_ she thought as she passed through the main gate. _"I wonder if my roommate is back yet. I hope she's nice."_

Entering the campus through the main gate, Ranma idly noted the Volleyball court to her left. Walking the wide, tree lined walkways she made her way passed the Museum and Library buildings. She went deeper into the campus, passing many generic "Arts and Sciences" buildings that were not even named, just numbered. Entering another wider tree lined walkway, with the majority of the masses, Ranma headed for her dorm building.

_"This is a change - a big change, but at least it is a change that I chose," _she continued to think. _"No one else and not any circumstances."_

The building was modern, clean and the brick color was reminiscent of her waitress uniform. The double glass doors opened smoothly as she made her way into the entrance hall and lobby. Ignoring the elevators, she crossed over into the stairwell.

_"For most of my life, any dramatic change has been forced upon me," _Ranma thought._ "Except for agreeing to be adopted into the clan, almost every major life decision has been out of my hands."_

She rounded up the stairway.

_"First being forced from home so I could go on that stupid training trip with its cat fist and other insane things," _she reflected. "_Then there was being bought and sold, the multiple fiancees, being disowned, being homeless on the streets and finally being Sailor Sun."_

Sailor Sun.

Ranma's attitude about her Senshi powers had changed over the year. At first, she treated her powers like a new toy, then a duty and now - a burden. The Senshi powers that made her the most unhappy were the one's that she could tap into untransformed without really realizing it.

Those were a thorn in her side, even if it was more a mental thing than really a problem. The problem was that she had no conscious control over them and developed a unhealthy paranoia about them.

_"I didn't spend a great chunk of my life mastering my mind, body and Art just to let a one thing slip out of my control,"_ she thought to herself when she analyze the situation.

Of all people, it was Happosai who helped her.

Over the past year, he had taught her how to control her Senshi power by treating it like ki. With better control of her Senshi powers, her paranoia waned and Ranma became more confident in herself.

More important, she felt she had more control in her life.

Ranma then avoided using her power for mundane things, like compressing time to extend her study time or anything else personal in nature. She took to looking at her Senshi abilities much in the same as how working people would separate their professional and personal lives. Likewise, Ranma strived to treat her Senshi and personal lives as separate ones.

Besides, she felt that using her powers for something normal people had no problem with would become a crutch - a crutch she felt she didn't need in everyday life.

A crutch she was determined to do without.

---------------

Earlier, Ranma briefly checked out her dorm room when Akiko and her uncle helped lug her stuff up there. She found it a small, yet comfortable affair.

The room had a narrow opening that opened up into a wider space. To the right, when entering, was a door that lead to a bathroom - complete with shower - that was shared with the suite next door.

The wider part of the room on each side, were two, low beds with thick mattresses resting upon a solid frame with drawers built into them for storage. Next to the foot of the bed and nearest the door was a wardrobe for hanging clothing, with addition drawers on the bottom for unused shoes and whatnots. Between the head of the bed and the outer wall was a desk with open hutch for the storage of books and other school supplies. Mounted on the wall beside the desk were two shelves. The opposite side of the room was a mirror image. Between the sides was a surprisingly large window that gave a grand view of the adjacent dorm building.

Not as good as home, but good enough for Ranma.

Unlocking her dorm room, Ranma pushed the door open. She was greeted by another girl with long, light brown or dark blonde hair, depending on your point of view. Blue, mischievous, and expressive eyes were set in an oval shaped face. She stood half a head taller than Ranma and extruded an air of being laid back and easy going. Stacked on one side of the room was a pile of the other girl's belongings.

"Oh, hello," the girl said, bowing "I'm Megumi Amatsuka, you must be my roommate."

"I'm Ranma Yonai," Ranma answered with a smile as she returned the bow. "Please to meet you, Miss Amatsuka."

"You can call me Megumi, Ranma," Megumi said cheerfully. "Ranma? That's an interesting name? I don't think I've ever met a Ranma that was a girl before."

"What can I say?" Ranma replied as she took the nearest chair by one of the desks. "My... father wanted a boy."

"So - you were raised to be kind of a tomboy, weren't you?" she she playfully.

Ranma smiled, "Something like that."

"Well anyway, what side do you want?" Megumi asked as they both began the process of working out the living arrangements.

----------------

Days later...

Ranma looked across the waters and at the cherry trees that were painting the landscape wit their pale pink blossoms. Symbolically this signaled a renewal of life, a movement into the future, a change - a beginning of the next stage. The sky, in spite of the forecasts calling for rain, was partly cloudy with the sun peeking out from the veil of low lying clouds that hung over the city.

Taking one last look across the waters of the Ushiga-fuchi, Ranma absently spied the Chiyoda Ward Office sitting on the opposite shore. She was dressed in a dark grey skirt, white shirt (with a starched collar - Akiko insisted) and matching jacket. Her red hair cascaded unbound down to the small of her back making a striking contrast against the dark colors she was sporting.

The combination was quite stunning.

Ranma took a deep calming breath before turning to join the large crowd of people as they milled about waiting to enter a large, hexagonal shaped building.

These were members of her class.

Reacting to an unseen and unheard cue, the crowd began haphazardly filing in. Ranma fidgeted in her nervousness as she followed her class as it filed slowly into the Nippon Budo-kan.

_"Why do we have'ta go through this?" _she wondered. _"If I wasn't so excited, I'd be bored."_

Ranma entered the building and after a brief search, she found her seat among her fellow classmates. She pretended to wait patiently with them for the university entrance ceremony to begin. As she fidgeted in her seat, she took the time to look about the people and building that surrounded her. Some wore masks of disinterest, others were openly as nervous and excited as she was.

Craning her head around, Ranma searched for any familiar faces in the audience. There were so many people, it was impossible. Sighing at not being able to find Akiko or any of her family, she turned her attention back to the students around her.

After almost giving up hope of finding anyone she knew, she spotted Ami. Her fellow Senshi was sitting about three rows down at over off to the left of Ranma. She thought about waving her hand to get Ami's attention, but felt it wouldn't be proper given the circumstances.

She sighed and settled back into her seat.

The last time she was this nervous was when she was adopted into the Yonai clan and met Akiko's father for the first time - this time she was smart enough to forego drinking any water in the hours before arriving. Exhaling a breath she was unconsciously holding, she began to relax a bit, her mind began to wonder over the last few days.

Moving in and meeting her roommate two days prior was nerve-racking in itself. Not that meeting her roommate for the first time was nerve-racking, it was the exciting feeling that she was on her own. Even though she had originally planned on commuting to school everyday, Akiko insisted that she and Michiko room at their school's dorms. Granny strongly felt that being on your own and making decisions for yourself was an important part of growing up.

And besides, in spite of Ranma and Michiko going to different schools, they did so knowing that if something happened, family was near enough to help. For Ranma it was like being alone but not really alone. The mixed bag of emotions of being on her own for the first time in a long time made her stomach flip-flop.

Her roommate, Megumi was... truly an interesting person. She practiced some martial arts, but more as a means of keeping in shape than anything serious. Nothing like Ranma had done or continued to do. Megumi was taller than Ranma by half a head, that didn't bother Ranma because almost everyone she had met was taller than her. She had an outgoing personality and shared a liking for karaoke that matched Ranma's.

And mentioned that between studying and classes, she planned to date - and had threatened to involve Ranma.

Moving back into the here and now, Ranma took in her surroundings. The room was large, arena sized, filled with folding chairs set up in class blocks upon the green carpeted floor. In front was a raised stage where several men and women sat, that were split into two lines, one for the left and right sides. The podium was an orangish color with a matching table with a pitcher of water and several glasses.

The room was filled with the steady hum of conversation. She couldn't really tell how many people filled the room, but it must have numbered in the thousands. The hum of conversation faded and died as Ranma's attention was refocused onto the stage.

A gray-haired man had rose from his seat and crossed the stage to take a position behind the podium.

The opening speeches began.

-----------------

Ranma looked at her course schedule and at the room number.

_"Well here goes nothing. Principles of Chemistry, here I come,"_ she thought as she entered through the double doors.

The seating in the room was arranged the long tables with chairs behind them, instead of individual desks. The chairs were plastic and uncomfortable looking and placed on one side of the tables. All the seats were facing the front of the room.

After a short search, Ranma found a seat. That's when Ranma discovered that the chair was only slightly more comfortable than it looked.

Sighing at the thought of being uncomfortable for the next hour, Ranma placed her large book-bag before her on the table and fished out the Chemistry I book and a notepad. She also removed from her bag a DragonBall Z pencilboard, a gift from Chiyo before Ranma left for school, and placed it under the first sheet of the pad. Removing the book-bag from the table top, she placed on the floor beside her, before scooting it beneath her chair.

While waiting for the class to start, Ranma took in her surroundings, looking about and scrutinized the details of the large room.

The classroom was in one of the generic Arts and Sciences buildings that dotted the Komaba campus. The front wall was dominated by large chalkboards, a long desk/worktable filled with chemistry equipment and stacks of paper, and who-only-knows-what. From the ceiling, a screen was retracted out of the way. The wall, opposite the room's entrance, were windows floor to ceiling letting in ample light and gave a decent view of the tree dotted campus. The center of the opposite wall were double doors that allowed entrance were more chalkboards. The very back were lined with selves and cubbies where students could unload their packs, book-bags and other things not necessary to the class.

Ranma thought about that, before deciding to leave her book-bag where it was, under her chair.

"I hope that this class isn't too hard," a voice commented beside Ranma.

"Huh?" was Ranma's intelligent reply.

"I said," the girl that was sitting next to Ranma restated, "that I hope this class isn't too hard. I'm only taking this as an elective."

Ranma blink-blinked at the girl beside her. The girl stared back in return.

"Wow," Ranma commented as she stared the girl next to her. "I thought I was the only one to have hair that red."

Ranma's classmate giggled quietly in returned before extending a hand.

"Hi, my name is Hikairu," she greeted between giggles.

"I'm Ranma. Pleased to met you," came the reply as she took her neighbors hand and shook it gently. "You're taking this class as an elective?"

The other red head nodded.

"Yup," she said. "I majoring in Journalism and I really don't want to put too much effort in a subject that I'm never going to use. You?"

"This is my major," Ranma replied with a thin smile. "I got hook into it in high school. I just hope that ready for this - I heard all kinds of stories on how hard college level work is."

"I know what you mean," Hikairu commented with a nod. "So far journalism isn't what I imaged it would be."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, my instructor is very old school," Hikairu explained. "Believes in reporting nothing but the facts and 'if something is your opinion, you better damn well say it's you opinion so your readers won't confuse it with fact'."

"I don't know how this guy is," Ranma said conversationally with a wave toward the front of the class. "I haven't heard anything about him."

Before the conversation could continue, a man with an obvious air of authority strode to the front and stood behind the work table. The classroom descended into silence, all eyes on the newcomer.

"Class, attention," he boomed.

With that everyone was on their feet and as one bowed toward the front of the room.

"Class, be seated," he said.

The room was back in their chairs.

Ranma began to examine her professor, as he in turn examined the class. He was short, even shorter than her, even as he stood ramrod straight. He wore light grey slacks that seem to match the grey on the temples of his otherwise dark hair. This face was clean shaven and his eyebrows seemed bushier than most peoples - almost giving him a comical appearance. Almost. The scowl on his face was anything but comical.

He, quite frankly, looked pissed.

"My name is Doctor Kagaku," he said. "I will be your instructor for this semester and if you're lucky, longer. First things first: how many chemistry majors do I have in this class?"

Ranma, not being intimidated by the man, raised her hand boldly while others seemed to hesitate. He looked about the room and nodded his head.

"Good," he commented with a nod, the hands dropped. "Now how many have their lab assignments?"

On that, three quarters of the hands, including Ranma's, went up.

"Better than I expected," Dr. Kagaku muttered. "I will get the assignments to those who don't have theirs yet before the end of the week."

There was a general murmur that passed through the room before silence ruled again.

"Now," Dr. Kagaku said. "The first thing we are going to cover, before anything, is safety. Now who can tell me the number one rule for safely handling..."

The class continued.

---------------

Ranma checked her balance sheet before blowing a breath through pursed lips, causing her bangs to fly up.

_"Well, I'm well within budget," _she thought. _"In fact, I'm building up a surplus."_

This was because basically, she was a tightwad, and because of that she was doing all right.

_"With the allowance from the family,"_ she mused as she rechecked her numbers, _"and continuing to be as frugal, I should be all right for a while." _

Still, she didn't feel right not working and taking money from the Yonai's. True she was part of the family, but in the back of her mind she felt it wasn't right.

_"I feel like a freeloader_," Ranma thought to herself. Freeloading was something she despised in her previous family. _"Even with Akiko and her dad saying it's perfectly alright, this doesn't feel right to me."_

_"So far, I'm under budget, so I can put off getting a job for a while longer,_" she thought as she rechecked the numbers.

She thought about getting a job many times before, but finding the time to hold a job and attend classes and study and her lab on Fridays and relax a bit and...

... it was more daunting than she first thought.

Ranma shook her head, _"Not to mention that every job in and within a decent distance of the campus is filled."_

Ranma sighed, almost sounding like she had been defeated.

_"No. I'm no freeloader,"_ she reaffirmed to herself. _"I'll just have to keep looking."_

She wondered, was worrying about money, jobs, classes, and grades the part of growing up that Akiko meant?

Ranma blew a breath through pursed lips again, causing her bangs to fly up like before. _"If I keep my spending under control like I have been doing, I can make it last a little longer."_

_------------------_

The loud, screeching sound jarred Ranma from her deep sleep.

_"Dammit,"_ she though with tired bitterness, _"don't those assholes know when it's not funny anymore?"_

Ranma's roommate groaned from her bed.

"I can't believe those assholes still think this is funny," Megumi said as she echoed Ranma's thoughts.

The fire alarm pealed as the two girls staggered out of their nice, warm beds and into the much cooler hallway. At every doorway, up and down the hall, pairs of girl stood in uncertainty. Some were mulling around in the center of the corridor and speaking in low conversation.

"It's another false alarm..."

"What if it's for real this time..."

"Screw this. I'm going back to..."

"I'm going to kill the guy..."

"It's two in the f---ing morning..."

Ranma sighed as her roommate leaned against the door frame. Someone had took it into their sick little mind to think that pulling the fire alarm in the middle of the night was funny. Many of the girls suspected someone from one of the boys dorms getting a cheap thrill out of see girls in their night clothes outside. Ranma didn't care who it was as long as they stopped. However if she ever caught the guy, she was going to break his fingers.

Slowly and painfully.

Ranma had just completed that thought when the alarm stopped. The sound stopped so abruptly that the silence was deafening, leaving Ranma's ears feeling like they were wrapped in cotton.

After mulling about for what seemed like forever, Yuki the resident assistant, entered the hall from the elevator. She was dressed in her night clothes that were covered by a purple robe and slippers - the pink, fuzzy kind - on her feet. She looked at the tired group of girls in the hallway before sighing heavily.

"You know, all of you are supposed to evacuate the building when the alarm goes off," she stated tiredly.

Someone in the crowd snorted out, "When it happens every f---ing night, forget it."

"Well it's not going to happen again," Yuki said. "I heard downstairs that they just caught the guy and as I understand it they're filing charges."

"Who was it?" an anonymous voice asked form the crowd. "Was is one of those dorks from the boys dorm?"

Yuki shook her head, "No. It wasn't a student or staff member. It was some salary man who snuck on campus doing it."

"But why?" another voice asked.

"Because," Yuki answered sharply, "he's a perverted jerk who has a thing for seeing women in their panties. He was hoping to get his jollies."

"Can I break his fingers?" Ranma asked honestly.

"Take a number and wait your turn," Yuki shot back.

"Where do I get my number?" Ranma shot back with vigor.

"I'll let you know" Yuki deadpanned, before continuing louder, "Okay girls, the show's over, everyone can go back to bed now."

With multiple groans, the girls filed back into their respective rooms.

-----------------

Ranma was doing some cool down exercises and went over the session she just put herself through. A few days ago Happosai had trained her in some new techniques that she had finished incorporating into her Senshi practice. It still amazed her how much of the high end ki stuff that she had been learning lately integrated almost seamlessly with her Senshi abilities.

Ranma finished her stretches and sat down to rest on her favorite rock. Titling her head, she stared at the half Earth in the sky. She took a liking to noting the changes of the Earths phases each time she came here. Between the continents, the seasons and the clouds, the Earth never looked the same twice.

She couldn't see Japan, though- it was firmly in the night side of the Earth. If she wanted to however, she could extended her senses and feel it.

She exhaled through pursed lips, causing her bangs to fly up. Looking upward with her eyes to the offending hair, she thought, _"I gotta get my bangs trimmed - I gotta job interview the day after tomorrow and I gotta look good."_

On that note, she summoned her sword and cut a path back a secluded part of the campus.

-------------------

"Ranma!" came a call from behind.

Pivoting on one foot, Ranma turned in mid step facing the direction of the call.

"Ami!" she responded with a smile. _"It's good to see her," _Ranma thought, _"it's been a few weeks."_

"Where are you heading too?" Ami asked as she caught up to Ranma.

"Building fifteen," she answered. "Math, then foreign language. You?"

"Eleven," Ami responding, referring to the building number, as they walked together. "Biology, then Micro."

"You go by this way everyday?" Ranma inquired.

"Yes. I'm a little earlier than usual" Ami replied. "Once I thought I saw you, but it turned out to be some other girl with hair as red as yours."

"Yeah," Ranma nodded. "There's another girl around here with red hair. She's in my chemistry class, sits right next to me."

Silence fell between the pair as they weaved through the crowd, stopping before one of the buildings.

"Any news from home?" Ranma inquired.

"Not really," Ami replied. "It's been real quiet like it has been for the last year - but there is a motion to get together at least once a month. Just to make sure everyone keeps in touch."

"We can probably do that," Ranma said, eyeing the people around her. "It would be good to see everyone. Just let me know the time and place and I can... ah, get us there."

Ami nodded understandably before asking, "How's your roommate?"

Ranma shrugged. "She's alright, I guess. She's likes to go out on dates on Friday nights and is always dragging or trying to drag me out with her. You know, double dating and all that. Yours?"

"A real quiet, mousy type," Ami said as she shook her head. "I don't think she had a minute of fun in her whole life."

"Shame," Ranma commented before glancing at her watch, resting beside her bracelet. "Well, I gotta get going - it was nice seeing you."

Ami waved as Ranma darted off to her class.

-----------------

"I think you'll do," the man behind the desk said approvingly.

"Thank you, Mr. Mikage," Ranma said while bowing.

"You're welcome," he replied with a nod. "Report in at 9:30 this Saturday to Mrs. Katsuragi, she'll help set your schedule and also will be your immediate supervisor, if you have any questions, ask her. Please be sure to wear a nice skirt, a dark color is required, preferable with pleats. The shirts should be white and clean and the jacket will be provided."

"Yes sir. Thank you, sir," Ranma replied.

Ranma smiled inwardly, she got the job. She couldn't wait to get back to the dorm and call Akiko to tell her the news.

----------------

It was the end of the week.

A long week.

The longest week Ranma had, since school started.

After unlocking the door and entering, Ranma dragged herself across the the dorm room and tiredly set her burden down.

_"Twelve years of martial arts training has nothing on college,_" she thought wearily. _"I swear, my brain is tired."_

Ranma looked down on her book-bag resting on her desk. Reaching over, she turned on the fluorescent lamp that served to illuminate her desktop. Seating herself, she began to pull various books out and started sorting them into piles.

_"This is due on Monday, this on Tuesday, and this on Thursday," _She thought as she sorted her assignments for the coming week. _"Not to mention work and I can't forget that lab report - it's due before Lab on Friday."_

Ranma sighed, Friday Lab was exhausting.

_"One thing, just one thing wrong in lab,"_ Ranma thought, _"and you had to repeat the experiment from the beginning." _

Ranma sighed.

_"At least it got easier once I got most of the procedures down,"_ she consoled herself with. _"But some of the things that Dr. Kagaku found wrong, I swear, was nit-picking."_

But since Dr. Kagaku had been doing this longer than she'd been alive (at least in this life), she respected him.

Ranma sighed again.

_"This is on top of anything else they throw at me next week," _she thought as she looked upon the intimidating stacks of books before her.

Reaching up she marked what was due and when on a calendar that was hanging on the wall, beneath the shelves. As Ranma finished marking her calendar, Megumi walked in a tossed her backpack onto her bed.

"Whatcha doing tonight?" she asked excitedly.

Ranma gave out a tired sigh, she just knew what was coming next.

"Let me guess - you're going out tonight and want me to come with you?" Ranma asked.

"Yes," Megumi confirmed while nodding. "It's the weekend. Better yet, it's Friday. Time to relax a bit before hitting the books. C'mon, you know you always feel better after you've been out."

"Megumi," Ranma explained, "I have more homework than should be legal and -"

"You can take a break before you go crazy for one little night," Megumi interrupted as she smiled. Ranma had always been reluctant to go out. Lucky for her, she knew the magic word. "The place I want to check out has karaoke," she said knowingly.

"Karaoke?" Ranma perked up while blinking audibly.

"Ah-huh," Megumi replied coyly. "Karaoke, a stage, food, dancing - you know how you love to dance. C'mon - you know you always do better when you get out a bit."

"Well...," Ranma considered, her resistance weakening.

"C'mon. You wanna get old before your time?"

Ranma warred with two different desires. She could go out tonight and relax, and get up and hit the books first thing. Or, she could stay here, be responsible and... and... grow old before her time.

"Okay, I'll go... but I have to hit these books tomorrow. No complaining if I wake you up early. Deal?"

"Deal," Megumi affirmed with a smile. "Ryo and his roommate will be joining us, is that okay?"

Ranma shrugged her shoulders, "I guess not, as long as he can keep his hands to himself."

Megumi smiled as a reply as she ready herself for the night.

-----------------

"How did you do?" Megumi asked from her spot on the bed as her red headed roommate entered their room.

"It was easy, I think I aced it," Ranma replied. "I'm kind of disappointed, I was expecting the test to be more difficult than it was."

"Really? Why?"

Ranma cocked her head to one side in consideration.

"I don't know," Ranma said. "I was expecting something more... challenging." Then shrugging her shoulders, she added, "I guess I all that studying I did paid off."

"Or maybe it was just easy," Megumi point out from her spot on her bed.

"Yes...," Ranma thought back to the test. "It was easy... too easy... Hmmmm...."

_" Maybe the teacher was probing her students for any weaknesses," _Ranma thought. _"Trying to lull us into a false sense of ease before she strikes with a harder test." _

She stood and considered that line of thought before widening her eyes,_ "Maybe it's some kind of martial arts Mathematics Instruction that I never heard of before."_

Ranma shook her head, sending her red ponytail flying when she was struck by the absurdity of the idea.

"What?" Megumi inquired.

"Nothing," Ranma replied. "Just thought of something really stupid."

-------------

"Arrrg!" Ranma howled as she entered her dorm room and slammed the door. This caused her roommate to drop the book that she was pulling from the self beside her desk.

"Idiots! Stupid, blasted idiots," she fumed loudly.

Ranma's roommate watched as she crossed the room and paced in front of her desk with her gym bag hanging from the strap on one shoulder. It was well into the semester and Ranma was clearly vocalizing her frustrations. Ranma's frustrations were not directed at any of her academics though, which were going smoothly, but rather her personal life. Specifically, her martial arts.

_"Too bad Happosai isn't going to be here for another week, I so need to pound the hell outta something,"_ she thought in her annoyance as she tossed her gym bag onto her bed. She soon followed, laying on her back.

_"Sexist, patronizing, jerks,_" she though bitterly as she vocalize her frustration. "Grrrrr..."

"What happened now?" Megumi asked the fuming redhead.

"I just wanted to find a sparring partner to help keep my edge between visits from my martial arts master" she sat up and explained.

Megumi eyed her from where she sat, before nodding for Ranma to continue.

"What do I find?" Ranma snorted before she continued in a mocking way. "'Oh, you must want the aerobics class down the hall' or 'a pretty little thing like you is a martial artist?' and..." Ranma's eyes narrowed into a dangerous look at what she said next, "...'I can show you some _marital_ arts if you want'."

Silence filled the small dorm room. Ranma's roommate, shifted uncomfortably in her chair. Not knowing her roommate long, Megumi soon figured out that Ranma's dedication to the art was more than superficial. Definitely not something to make fun of. And seeing Ranma in action when she practiced her art, Megumi soon realized how seriously she took it...

... and anyone who dared insult it.

"O-kay. Did you let that last one live?" Megumi asked carefully.

"Yeah, I let the jerk live," Ranma groused, crossing her arms. "He won't walk straight and he'll have better control over his hormones for a while, but he'll live."

"Ouch," Megumi said with a wince as she involuntarily closed her legs together. She could only imagine the kind of damage that an irate Ranma could do to the offending party.

Ranma looked at the expression on her roommate's face and realized what she must be thinking.

"No, no, no," she said with a wave of her hand. "Nothing THAT bad, no matter how much he deserved it. I just hit a few sensitive pressure points, that's all."

"Oh," Megumi said, slightly relieved.

Ranma sat and fumed to herself before venting.

"What the hell's wrong with guys and sparring with me?" she vocalized. "It's not like I'm made of glass or anything - I won't break! Hell, I've taken hits that'd probably kill most those losers, and they're either trying to pick me up or treat me like a damn china doll."

"Well..." Megumi started, only to be cut off as Ranma continued her rant.

"I mean, dammit. I'vr dedicated most of my life to the art - something these idiots can't seem to get through their thick skulls...

"Well..." Megumi tried again, only to be cut off again.

"I'm a martial artist too - probably one of the best there is..."

"Well..."

"What do I have to do to be taken seriously? Beat the hell out of them before they try me for real? What in the -"

"WELL," Megumi said in a loud voice, cutting off Ranma's spiel.

Ranma stopped, mouth still opened from her rant, and blink-blinked at her. "Sorry," she mumbled out as an apology as she pulled at her ponytail.

"That's alright," Megumi said brightly. "I just think you have to look at it from their point of view."

"What do you mean?" Ranma inquired.

"Well... maybe...," she began to venture. "Um, we are the 'fairer sex' as they say. Maybe it's because guys are bigger and stronger than us girls, they figure it would be unfair."

Ranma looked at her roommate quizzically, right eye twitching.

"I mean, because of that," Megumi added quickly with a wave of her hand toward Ranma, "guys don't like to fight girls. And when they do, they let up a lot."

Ranma looked at her roommate, dumbfounded.

_"I've heard something like that before somewhere... but, where?" _Ranma thought as she sat at the edge of her bed, puzzling over this latest development.

"Anyway," Megumi said drawing Ranma away from her thoughts. "There is a informal kendo match coming up sometime. It's sponsored by the Kendo Club. Why not try your luck there?"

"Kendo? Hmmm," Ranma mused. "What the hey, I got to start working more on my weapons technique anyway."

"Uh-huh," Ranma's roommate affirmed as she picked her dropped book from the floor. "Now I have a report to research, I would appreciate some quiet time."

"Huh? Oh, sorry," Ranma said meekly as she rose from her resting place. "I got to hit the books myself - this calculus is not going to do itself."

Ranma stretched out and glided over to her desk. Plopping herself into her chair, she pushed all other thoughts aside. Removing several books from a cubby, she proceeded to cipher numbers.

---------------

Ranma sighed. She could be reading this back in her room, but the change of locations seemed to help her concentration. Also. when it came to trying to read in the dorm, she sometimes ran the risk of getting distracted by whatever was happening around her.

Ranma found herself curled up in her favorite chair, in her favorite corner of the library as she read her textbook, Literature of the Middle Ages (1180 - 1600). It was mostly a history book with excerpts of writings of the period. How the period began around the Gempei Wars and the following political upheaval. Overall she found it interesting and not what she expected considering how Kuno use to spout this stuff off.

_"Kuno,"_ she thought idly. _"That's a name I haven't thought of in a while. I wonder what ever happened to True Blunder?"_

As quickly as that thought crossed her mind, it escaped, crawled across the floor and hid in some dark corner somewhere. Never to see the light of day again.

Good.

With that, Ranma's mind cleared and she was able to refocus on the book. It was good though, even if some of the excerpts were somewhat flowery for her.

--------------------

Ranma quickly slipped into the dark blue jacket and smoothed out only wrinkles that may be there, it wouldn't do to meet the public looking like slob - image was everything in this job.

When she first started looking around for a job, she got discouraged because every decent job with a reasonable distance was taken. She then asked some of the others girls that she knew worked part time somewhere what they were doing. Some were doing waitressing or retail jobs, others discreetly mention that they were working at 'soap-lands' or 'image clubs' to make ends met. They said the hours were relatively low and the pay was very good. Ranma seriously thought about it...

... until she found out what a soap-land and image club were.

After that, she rejected the idea.

She counted herself lucky that she managed to get a job like this, but she was tipped off by by one of her dorm mates. Of course she would never have thought of working in a place like this, but it had the three things she needed : they didn't mind scheduling around her classes, a decent pay for what little hours she was putting into it, and close enough to the campus - practically next door - that she could run there and be on time. The only downside was that she had to wear nice skirts on days she worked and not having very many of those, she had to keep what she had clean.

Ranma dashed into the front of the traditionally constructed building to report in.

"Ah... Miss Yonai, you're here and right on time," a middle aged women with shoulder length dark hair said. She had a commanding personality about her and was also wearing the same dark blue jacket Ranma was wearing. "I like that in an employee."

"Yes... Thank you, Mrs. Katsuragi," Ranma responded as she bowed to her supervisor. "I always strive to be on time."

"That's very good," Mrs. Katsuragi said. "Well the front is yours, I'll be back in an hour. I think Mr. Mikage wants you to help with a tour when I get back."

"Yes, Mrs. Katsuragi," Ranma responded, also with a bow. "I have no classes until 1:30, so that will give me plenty of time to get back."

With a nod, Mrs. Katsuragi threw her purse over her shoulder and left the booth to Ranma. Ranma sat in the high chair and waited for the customers to come, it was boring sometimes, but it gave time for the full time employees to grab lunch. She worked Tuesdays through Thursdays, from 10:45 to 1:15 and all day every other Saturday and every Sunday. As a bonus, the job gave Ranma the opportunity to occasionally use her English.

Ranma waited patiently until a group of people, she noted that it was made up of mostly foreigners, came up to the window. It was time to go to work.

"Welcome to the Folk Crafts Museum," Ranma said in English while bowing with her best smile. "How may I help you?"

---------------

Another Friday night.

When Ranma first started college, she resisted Megumi's efforts to drag her out on Friday nights. She was determined to be a serious student and focus all her time and effort into being that. After the first few weeks of nothing but school, study and eating, Ranma was beginning to go stir-crazy. Ranma discovered that 'decompressing' at the end of the week seemed to help her concentration the next day and into the following week.

_"I guess there is something to the saying 'all work and no play'," _Ranma thought as the beat of the music throb through her body. Megumi was taking her turn on the stage, belting out 'Aoi Ringo'. Ranma was near the stage, looking through the selections, deciding what she was going to sing when her turn came.

_"'Sakura Drops'?... Nah. How about 'Crushing Girl Blues'?... Nah," _Ranma read to herself. She smiled when she ran across one of her favorites, _"'Positive'?... Now that one I know I like... yes that's the one I'll do."_

Ranma looked about the club as Megumi continued singing.

It was a nice hole-in-the-wall type of place that attracted high schoolers early in the evening, before giving way to the older, college crowd. Ranma also appreciated the fact it was a clean place - not like some of the other places that Megumi had dragged her to. The outside of the first two stories of the structure that housed the club was decorated in neon and other bright lights. The color of the building was painted in lime green and trimmed in an equally bright orange.

Ranma recalled the first time she saw the name and burst into a fit of giggles.

The Cute Rabbit.

It wasn't just the name, but the cartoon rabbit mascot done up in neon that bore a striking resemblance to a certain friend she had back in Juuban.

Usagi would die if she saw it.

Megumi finished with fanfare as the crowd in the club clapped, hooted and whistled. She smiled and waved to the crowd as she replaced the microphone in its bracket and descended from the stage. Ranma passed her on her way up and picked up the microphone and punched the program buttons on the very large karaoke machine.

After a moment of silence, the music kicked in.

Ranma began to sing...

--------------

Ranma carefully measure out the powder and weighed it in a sheet of lab paper it to be sure.

_"I don't want to mess this up," _she thought to herself. _"Doing this once is enough for me."_

After carefully weighing the off-white power, she carefully poured into a beaker with a solution that she had prepared earlier and stirred it in with a glass rod. The mixture turned purple.

Ranma blink-blinked and controlled herself before panicking.

_"What I'd do? What I'd do?"_ she thought frantically as she skimmed her notes and lab assignment. Her index finger racing up and down the pages trying to find out what happened.

Hoping that this what was suppose to happen.

Her heart leapt to her throat as Dr. Kagaku came up behind her as announced, "Ahh! It's purple, very good. It shows you measured everything out perfectly."

Ranma starred at the man.

"I - I did?" Ranma asked hesitantly.

Dr. Kagaku looked at her quizzically, "Of course Miss Yonai, what were you expecting?"

"Ahh... I wasn't sure it came out right. Um... yeah. See? I was double checking with my notes. Um... see?" Ranma answered nervously as she held her notebook up for him to see. She also hope he wouldn't ask her to repeat the procedure.

Dr. Kagaku nodded understandably. "I see," he said. "Very good."

Ranma's heart soared.

"Well," he added light heartedly, "practice does makes perfect, Miss Yonai. So why don't you run through it again to make sure you have it down right."

Ranma's heart sank to her knees.

"Y-yes sir," she replied wearily.

As the Dr. Kagaku walked away to check the progress of the other students, Ranma let out a breath she hadn't been aware she was holding. She then considered his words.

_"Well, practice does make perfect,"_ she thought, then grinned inwardly. "_That's how I got so good at the Art."_

With a more positive attitude, Ranma prepared to repeat the experiment.

--------------

Ranma laughed at the joke the short haired girl made about her classmate.

It was another Friday and Megumi decided to hang around the dorm tonight instead of going out, dragging Ranma with her. They were now part of a group, sitting around and talking about their classes, tests and life in general.

Ten girls crammed themselves into one of the others' dorm room. Lounging about on the floor, beds and any flat surface that would support them - it was a tight fit, but they managed. Ranma only knew about half of the girls by name and the other half by sight, but it didn't make any difference - she felt comfortable there. A bottle of - something - was being passed around that Ranma declined to drink from, but Megumi had no problems sharing.

"Eye is where the mud is!" Megumi said badly in English before titling the bottle back, taking a drink.

The others giggled at her.

"My ex-boyfriend," the girl with the pink hair began, "is such a jerk. Ya' know, he called me up the other day from home, saying how it was all my fault because I wouldn't drop everything and come running when he calls."

"What the hell's his problem?" another girl slurred out.

"Raised real traditional like," came the reply. "His family thinks all girls should do is have kids and take care of the home."

"Man, that's, like so twenty years ago," another said.

The group nodded, some dizzily, in unison at that comment.

"How about you, Red?" a brown haired girl asked, addressing Ranma. For the most part, Ranma tried to ignore the nickname, even as it slowly caught on. "You got anyone waiting back home?"

"Not on your life," Ranma answered with a smile.

"You're kiddin'," a blond said. "Someone like you got nobody?"

"Well... I didn't really date much in high school," Ranma replied carefully. "I was too busy working and training."

"Training? For what?"

"Martial Arts," Ranma answered as half the girls "ooo'ed" and the other half blink-blinked at that.

"Are you any good?" one of the girls slurred.

"Heh, I'm probably one of the best," Ranma stated matter of factly. "My Master is training me to be his heir."

"Wow," another slurred voice commented. "With all that training, you must be limber as hell in the sack."

Ranma's face flushed at that as the girls howled in laugher at her embarrassment.

"I... I... wouldn't know," Ranma stammered out, trying not to turn any redder than she already was. Her efforts were rewarded by more laughter at her expense.

Ranma sighed in relief as the conversation turned to more comfortable subjects.

Later...

Ranma was feeling very relaxed among the girls in the room. Even without sharing the bottle, she opened up a bit more than she wanted.

"Yah mean tah tell me that your dad- I mean ex-dad, wanted you to marry some dude, that's older than the hills, just so he could live off your work? And you were only what? - sixteen at the time?" the blond asked.

"And he engaged you to how many guys?" the short-haired girl added.

Ranma bent the truth a bit, reversing genders in her story, but who would have believed her if she told the truth?

"Um... Yes, and three that I know of," Ranma answered while adding a nod.

"He traded your hand in marriage for a meal - wazzit again?" another girl asked as she scratched her armpit. "Some rice, fish and pickles? Sounds like a real nice guy your fath-, I mean ex-father."

Ranma snorted, "Nice isn't a word I would describe that worthless piece of human debris."

Silence fell among the group, those that were still conscious.

"Oooo-, I sense hostility," one of the black haired girls said dramatically before tipping over onto her side and letting out a loud snore.

Ranma let out a sigh as she looked among the drunken, passed out and semiconscious girls. It was late, she was feeling tired and she had to work all day tomorrow. So as quietly as she could, she helped Megumi back to their room and put her to bed before retiring for the night herself.

Overall, Ranma thought the evening had been... interestingly relaxing.

--------------------

Ranma stretched as she swung her bokken lazily, working the kinks out of her arm. She had been going at it all most of the morning and didn't want to lose because she let herself become stiff while waiting for her next match. Not to mention the late night she had dancing, but it was worth it.

She wore a baby blue gi tied off with a matching sash, her hair was tied back in a ponytail with a bow that matched the color of her gi. The tournament was moving much quicker than she expected. It was only about half past ten and the majority of the fighters, including many on the Kendo Team were already eliminated.

She had ended most of her matches quickly and decisively. The informal tournaments rules were not as strict as a real one, so the contestants had more latitude in what they could or couldn't do.

Ranma smirked, as continued to loosen her arm, recalling the win against her third challenger that morning. Letting him press her back, feinting weakness, until her opponent went in for the kill. Ranma evaded the attack by vaulting clear over his slash. The fact that the vault cleared her opponent, didn't matter to her as she landed behind him. She poked him with the end of her bokken beneath his shoulder blade. The stunned look of his face was priceless.

As well as the members of the small audience.

The size of the audience surprised her. The crowd that came to watch was thin and didn't seem to all that interested in what was going on early in the event. As the morning progressed the crowd only got slightly larger and the interest matched.

_"You think something like this would draw more of a crowd," _she mused as she continued to keep limber.

The announcer proclaimed the end of the match that had been going on between a pigtail boy and a upperclassman. The pigtailed boy was declared the winner and both parties bowed to each other before exiting the arena.

Ranma smiled as she size up her latest and last opponent.

He was a good head taller and the white gi he was wearing failed to hide the strength hidden beneath it. He had a rounded face, deep brown eyes, and a pigtail that came down to the back of his neck. Ranma's eyes narrowed as she examined her opponent.

_"His ki,"_ she thought as her eyes narrowed._ "There's something weird with his ki."_

Any more scrutiny was cut off by the referee.

"Just a reminder, this is a informal match," he began quietly and in a serious manner. "We are not following strict rules today, but keep it clean. Understand?"

"Yes sir," the pair answered.

"Okay then," the referee said. "To your marks."

The pair parted from the referee, moving apart until they were about nine feet apart. They then turned and bowed to one another.

"Positions!" the referee boomed.

Ranma took a side-on stance, holding the tip of her bokken low, almost touching the ground. Her opponent face her more head-on with his bokken held higher in mid position.

The referee between held a fan, high in one hand, and looked back and forth. First and Ranma then at her foe.

"Begin!" he announced while making a chopping motion with the fan and moving out of the way.

With that, the battle began.

Two hours later...

No one had scored a point yet as the bokkens clashed with resounding claps.

The sound was deafening in their sharpness, but the combatants didn't seem to notice in their focus to defeat the other. The blades contacted, each almost rubbing the length of each other in the effort of trying to get by the individual defenses. As if an unheard signal was sent to the pair, the pace of the spar notched up to a higher level.

The blades flashed and clashed with such force that witnesses to the event wondered why the wood didn't splinter and crack. The blades themselves, as well as the arms that wielded them were nothing more than blurs.

Two hours later...

_"This guy's good,"_ Ranma thought as she parried an attack, followed by one of her own.

_"At least he's not a wuss, like some of the others I've fought," _she grinned inwardly. _"Good stamina to keep up with me."_

Her opponent struck out and then followed the strike, attempting to get inside her guard. Instead of falling back as others would do, Ranma countered the strike by pushing it aside with her blade and going on the offensive herself. Releasing one hand from her grip, she lashed out with her now free hand, hoping to hit a pressure point on the man's upper arm.

The pigtailed man must have sensed something, for he rolled his shoulder out of the way. Ranma missed her intended target, but managed to tag the bicep, leaving what would probably become a bruise. As that happened Ranma almost missed the reverse that the young man did with his blade, bringing it to bear on her. Leaning back in an impossible angle, Ranma watched as the wooden blade pass above her, inches from her body.

Both fighters broke apart, sizing each other up. Ranma thought she heard yelling or cheering, but she was too focused on the match to pay it any mind.

Ranma wagged her eyebrows and the kendoist, hoping to psyche him out a bit. He responded with a raised eyebrow.

Then both parties charged again.

Two hours later...

The bokken came down. The sound of splintering wood was heard, but ignored by both combatants as they flowed around each other, searching for an opening. Ranma vaguely heard yelling, but since no one was in the line of fire, she ignored it as to not get distracted. If her opponent heard anything, he didn't hint at it.

It was tunnel vision. For Ranma nothing existed outside her foe. The way the pigtailed boy fought, he was just as fixated. Everything else faded into the background for the battling pair.

Charging, engaging, and breaking the match dragged on, neither side getting an upper hand.

The blades clashed faster. The sharp sound of wood hitting wood sounded like a machine gun.

Then pace went faster, the sound becoming one long, continuous, droning sound.

Ranma became slightly aware of her hilt getting warm, she dismissed this as someone actually giving her a workout for once. As the combat picked up from its already frantic pace, the bokkens got warmer and warmer. The friction of the contact from parrying, clashing and engaging was slowly building up the heat in the two wooded bokkens...

... until ignition occurred.

Both fighters, one ponytailed redhead girl and one black haired pigtailed man, broke off and starred dumbly at the flaming torches now in their hands. Flaming torches that were billowing smoke upward to the high ceiling.

"What in the hell do you two think you are doing?!" a slightly overweight man in his forties bellowed as he stormed up to the pair. "Don't you realize we been trying to stop you two for the last four hours?!"

The couple ignored the man at first, starring and stupefied at flames as they continued to bellow smoke upward. On registering the outraged man's words, both came out of their shock and tried to put the flaming bokkens out by shaking them.

"This is supposed to be an informal tournament," the man said angrily as he ran his fingers through his light brown hair, greying at the temples. "Not some insane death-match from a bad martial arts film!"

"Um...," Uh...," the pair responded, now trying to beat out the fires with their hands.

"I want to see you both in my office - NOW!" he roared.

The paired had finally extinguished the fires and now carried only smoking and very charred remains of what was bokkens. Both turned as one to face the very peeved man. Looking about them, Ranma noticed the condition of the arena and its surroundings for the first time. She then said what probably turned out to be not the brightest thing to ask.

"What did I do?"

This was just before the smoke and heat detectors had reached their limit and set off the fire alarm and the sprinklers.

Water rained down of the three.

The man glared at the pair.

"Any more questions?" he asked with sarcasm dripping off his voice.

-----------------

"That stupid, arrogant jerk!" Ranma fumed as she entered her dorm room. She was glad as heck that her gym bag in the locker room was still dry, as well as clothes it held.

Her roommate, looked up from the magazine she was reading and pensively asked the red head.

"Did you... lose?"

Ranma shot her a glare. The poor girl let out an "Eep".

"Sorry," Ranma said with a sigh. "I didn't lose, but I didn't win either. It was declared a draw. This jerk I was fighting just wouldn't give up and because of him, I have been exempted from competing. For, get this - being too good."

Megumi raised her eyebrow.

"Exempt from competing?" she asked. "That's weird, usually a team would want the best players on its side. Are you sure it was because you were good that or that you were a girl?" the last said somewhat hotly.

"Well... may be it had something to do with the doors..., " Ranma mumbled out.

"Doors?" Megumi asked.

"... and the bleachers..."

Megumi returned her eyebrow to its arched position, "Bleachers?".

"... may be it was the damage to the arena..."

"Uh... damage... arena?"

"... and I can't believe the sprinklers went off. The fire wasn't that big..."

"Fire? Ah... what exactly are you talking about?" the dark blond haired girl asked.

Ranma, realizing she left her roommate out of the conversation, blushed slightly.

"Sorry, its just that... me and this guy I was sparring against got a little... carried away. We... kinda, sorta... slightly... ah, damaged the building. A little." Ranma explained while looking down, stubbing her foot into the floor like a kid that got scolded for misbehaving.

"A little? Kinda? What?" Megumi asked, completely lost.

"Well, me and this other guy, didn't get his name, we were the two finalists in what was supposed to be a informal tournament," Ranma took a claiming breath.

"Well," she continued, "We start to spar and the next thing you know... well, let just say that we had to unexpectedly halt the match. Just when I had him, too. Anyway, the coach, ref, judge or whatever came over and laid into both of us and said 'since we displayed skills are far beyond the what is expected on a college level, we are hereby barred from competing in any university tournaments'."

Megumi just stared as Ranma sighed heavily, falling into silence.

Shaking her head clear, Megumi prompted, "And...?"

Ranma blink-blinked before resuming her story.

"Well, if he wasn't so stubborn," Ranma ranted, "he would - no should have yielded and given up. But noooo. He had to try and keep up with me with some fancy sword techniques..." Ranma blink-blinked at that before thinking out-loud, "Hmmm... come to think of it, I haven't seen moves like that before. I wonder if he could show me those sometime?"

Ranma's train of thought was derailed as she pondered the moves that her pigtailed opponent used. _"They were unique. I'll make it a point to ask him about them the next time I run across him."_

She titled her head to the side as she reanalyze the sword technique.

_"Hope they are not some family style or something," _she thought, "_Something not to be shared outside the family." _

Megumi stared at her for a moment before breaking Ranma's thoughts.

"And...?" she prompted again.

"Huh? Oh," Ranma came back to the here and now. "Well we were sparring and we kinda, sorta got carried away and damaged the building. The officials were not too happy with us and barred us from competing."

"So what you're saying, if the other guy gave up, you could've competed."

"Yes! Um... yes. That's what I'm saying - I think," Ranma agreed feeling somewhat unsure.

"Um... if the fight was so... 'carried away', why didn't you stop?" Megumi asked pointedly.

Ranma looked at her roommate as if she grown a second head.

"No. No way I'll give up," she answered while shaking her head. "Ranma Yonai doesn't give up."

"And you expected him to?" Megumi stated dryly while crossing her arms.

"Um...," uncertainty was replaced by realization. "I guess I'm ... acting stupid. Huh?" Ranma sighed out.

"Yes," Megumi said before pointing out, "But you have to admit, it's nice to meet a guy that won't hold back when sparring with you. Not like the other ones you were complaining about."

Ranma blink-blinked at her roommate.

"Ah... yeah. I guess it was nice," Ranma conceded and then complained, "But to be barred from competition..."

"Probably to save on rebuilding costs if you ask me," Megumi said pointedly. "You did say that they barred both of you, right?"

Ranma nodded in response to the question.

"You're lucky they didn't expel both of you and didn't ask you to pay for the damage," Megumi pointed out.

Ranma paled at the realization.

"Did they?" Megumi questioned carefully.

Still pale, Ranma shook her head no.

"Then don't worry about it," she said with a dismissive wave. "Oh, by the way - get showered and dressed. We got dates tonight."

Ranma nodded before realizing what was said.

"Dates! Oh no, not again!" Ranma objected. "I don't mind on Friday's, but today is Saturday and I'm here for the education! And the last time you dragged me out, it was like being with an octopus. I'm not going, I'm here strictly for the education, I gotta study. I gotta work tomorrow."

"Pleease?" Megumi asked while used her puppy dog eyes of persuasion. While not as effective as Usagi's, it did have the desired effect. "You did cram all last week so you could do your kendo thing today, if anything you're ahead - you said so yourself this morning."

Ranma stood her ground, "I got to work tomorrow."

"You don't have to be there until 9:30," Megumi countered.

Ranma just looked at her roommate.

"Karaoke," Megumi said coyly in a sing-song manner.

Ranma relented.

"Oh - okay. I guess. I'm ahead of my studies anyway and the tests are not as hard as I thought... who is it? It better not be that loser from last time." Ranma asked, feeling slightly put upon.

"No it's not. He my boyfriend's roommate. I haven't met him myself - but Tetsuyuki said he is very sweet."

"Tetsuyuki?" Ranma asked. "I thought Ryo was your boyfriend,".

"Ryo?" Megumi answered. "He hasn't been my boyfriend in... oh, about two - three weeks."

Ranma's right eyebrow twitched.

---------------

Ranma and Megumi loitered outside The Cute Rabbit, waiting for the men to show up.

Ranma decided to dress nice. She wore a white pullover shirt and black thigh length skirt with matching stockings. The shirt because it was comfortable, the skirt because she really had nothing else clean and the stockings because she wanted to keep her legs warm in the cool night air. Whatever the reason, she knew she looked good in it. She had her hair in a ponytail that cascaded down her back. Megumi was decked out in a one piece maroon colored dress that started at her shoulders and ended mid thigh, black flats and wore her hair loose.

Between the two girls, they drew more than their fair share of looks, leers, and stares.

The beat of the music was leaching through the walls and invading the sidewalk. The neon lights of the club were lit brightly in spite of the relative brightness outside. The sun was low, in the red sky as the day headed toward night. Ranma was surprised how busy the club looked on a Saturday, being used to going on Friday's so long. The sidewalk where she and Megumi were waiting was moderately filled with pedestrians milling around and about.

"Why do I let you talk me into these things?" Ranma asked, slightly unsure.

"Because you enjoy it," Megumi answered teasingly with a smile. "I didn't hear you complain when I fixed you up with that girl three weeks ago."

Ranma examined the ground around them.

"She wasn't too bad, I guess," Ranma quietly admitted. "I just wished she could have been - not quite so enthusiastic."

Megumi smiled. Ranma's reaction to her blind dates was a source of amusement for Megumi. It got even more amusing for her when she discovered that Ranma swung 'both ways' and she fixed her up with a few girls every now and then.

"So, you know anything about this guy?"Ranma asked.

"Not really, but Tetsuyuki said he is very quiet and soft spoken," Megumi answered as she kept an eye out for her boyfriend. "He said it took him this long even to convince him to go out."

"Ah... the shy type," Ranma mused.

"I'm not sure, but Tetsuyuki did say something about girl trouble," Megumi looked at the guarded expression on Ranma's face before adding, "I'm sure it's nothing. If this guy is a quiet as he says, then I doubt that women would be fighting over him."

Ranma's expression didn't change.

"I'm sure he's not a bad guy or anything, okay?" Megumi said in a quite matter of fact way. "Have I ever steered you wrong - "

Ranma's expression still didn't change.

" -lately?"

Ranma sighed and conceded the point. Even though there were a few misfires, Megumi's batting average when it came to dating had been good. Deep inside though, Ranma was now regretting she had come.

"There he is!" Megumi cried out, pointing behind Ranma.

Ranma turned and saw a young man of average height approaching with a light step. He had a rogue smile and black, bushy hair, tinted lighter at the tips. He wore a T-shirt, slacks and what appeared to be leather sandal-type shoes on his feet.

"Hey'ya Megumi. Is this Ranma?" the man greeted both girls as he saddled up to Megumi.

"Yes," Megumi answered while looking up to him. "This is my roommate, Ranma. Ranma this is Tetsuyuki," Megumi continued, making the introductions.

"Hi", Tetsuyuki greeted the redhead with a nod.

"Where is your roommate? Isn't he coming?" Megumi asked.

"Yeah, he's comin'. And you can call me Tetsu," Tetsuyuki said smoothly with the same rogue smile he had when he walked up. A smile that seemed so oily, that Ranma felt uncomfortable with.

_"Where did Megumi meet this guy?"_ Ranma wondered despairingly to herself. _"What a loser."_

"He shouldn't be too long," Tetsuyuki added. "He promised he'd come to get me off his back."

"What's he like?" Ranma asked, hoping that Tetsuyuki roommate wasn't another 'Dr. Octopus'.

"He's a real mousy type," he answered while bobbing his head to the beat coming from the club's innards. This made his bushy hairdo bounce around in a amusing manner. "And the way he acts, you'd think that half the girls in Tokyo were out to get'em."

_"Been there, done that, didn't even get the t-shirt"_ Ranma mused to herself before asking, "Oh, what do you mean?"

"I mean," Tetsuyuki continued while putting an arm around Megumi's shoulder, "he's a nice guy and all. It just sounds like he had some bad experiences with girls. Kinda left a bad taste in his mouth, ya'know?"

"Oh... what kind of bad experiences?" Ranma pressed.

Tetsuyuki gave Megumi a one armed hug as he answered, "Hearing him describe it, it was like two or more crazy chicks fighting over him, invading his privacy and doing all kinds of weird things to try and get him."

Ranma's right eyebrow twitched uncontrollably at that.

Tetsuyuki caught the subtle gesture.

"Hey, hey, hey. It's cool, it's cool," he tried to reassure Ranma. "He's a nice guy. Really. I finally talked him into going out tonight, saying may be all he needed to do is met some normal girls for a change. Ya'know - show him all girls aren't crazy like the one's back home."

Ranma blink-blinked before sarcastically asking, "Well, what do you consider a 'normal girl'?"

"Be nice," Megumi playfully scolded. Ranma nodded sheepishly.

"Here he is. Hey, Tenchi! Over here!" Tetsuyuki boomed as he motioned with his free arm.

_"Well, might as well get this over with,"_ Ranma thought as she turned to face...

... her opponent.

The pigtailed, black haired boy and the ponytailed, red haired girl starred at one another, briefly in shock.

"You," Ranma said, while resisting the urge to point a finger.

The pigtailed boy gulped.

"Um... Hi," he said weakly while pulling at his pigtail nervously. "I'm Tenchi Masaki, sorry about this."

-----------------

-----------------

Notes:

Well, here's the first chapter of the second story arc. Hope you all liked it.

I would like to thank everyone who took the time to leave a review. I really do appreciate it.

On a technical note: This was another experiment in writing. The first arc (up to when I lost my notes) I wrote a fairly detailed outline. Or as my wife put it, "You're writing the darn story before you write it". Not saying I followed the outline exactly, but it gave me a good direction where I wanted to go.

In the side story, I wrote the beginning and the ending first, and filled in the details from one end to the other.

This time I'm working with a very minimal outline. So minimal that this is it:

Chapter 1

Set the scene.

Intro characters

Have kendo match

End with dating (blind date) with Tenchi.

That's it. More of a checklist than an outline, but getting all the stuff on this checklist done took a while to do. It should keep me moving toward the end I want, but is flexible enough if wild idea comes my way I incorporate it into the story. So far I tentatively have about six chapters 'outlined' in this way.

Some of you could tell from the last notes that Real Life has intruded. It's better now and hopefully it will keep getting better. Writing, so far, has been a stress relief from Real Life and I work on it when I can.

Thanks for reading.


	21. University Part 2

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

---------------------

---------------------

University part 2

--------------------

The club was packed.

The dance floor was jammed with people moving and gyrating to the music, like a tide of rhythmic chaos that swept across the sea of dancers. The multicolored lights that hung from ceiling, pulsed to the beat of the music switching between red, blue and green. When each came on, it looked like inverted searchlights in the cigarette smoke that hung above the dance floor like a fog. The smoke dispersed when it hit the ceiling fans that were high on the ceiling, above where the lights were mounted.

On the stage two girls were singing a duet, not too badly considering that both were at least four sheets to the wind. Both girls were leaning into each other, supporting one another, while they sang. Off stage, in the pit, were other couples and singles that were paging through the song catalogs, preparing selections for their turn at the stage.

The music, the singing and the dancing mixed with the chatter of groups seated in the surrounding booths and tables. The combination of different noises was something that was felt more than heard - something experienced by more than one of the senses. The club, on a Saturday night, was a kaleidoscope of lights, sound and movement.

All this made talking impossible unless you leaned close to the person you were trying to speak with.

Four youths were seated in a curved booth gathered around a small round table with drinks resting on it. The size of the table made it easy to lean over to make yourself be heard in the din of the club. On the outside were two men, one with bushy hair, dyed at the tips, the other with dark hair in a pigtail. The inside of the booth was occupied by two women, one with light brown hair worn loosely, the other with bright red hair done up in a long ponytail.

Ranma stared at the pigtailed boy while fingering the rim of her Orange Julius and wondered if this was all some kind of cosmic joke. She continued run her finger around the edge of her glass as she inspected her date for the evening. He was wearing a neat, clean white button up shirt with dark colored trousers. His hair was done up in a tight pigtail, the type she used to wear all the time and occasionally still did. One hand rested in his lap while the other hand was at the base of his drink.

He had an air of wary nervousness, like he was expecting trouble or an attack.

Ranma tried to sort her thoughts and feelings, but the loudness of her surroundings slowed her logic process down a bit.

_"On one hand," _her thoughts began, _"I'm really annoyed as hell at seeing the one person that contributed to barring me from competition - ," _then added_, "the fact that he was also barred is a small consolation though." _

Ranma paused in thought, brow furrowed.

_"On the other hand,"_ continuing on a different train of thought, _"I am glad to have run into him so soon after the match, with his style of kendo fresh on my mind. The moves he did were unique and I did want to ask him about them."_

She then cocked her head to one side, pouting her lip a bit as she thought. Her date's nervousness seem to go up a notch as he reached up and tugged the base of his pigtail.

_"Still, on the other hand," _Ranma's froze in mid thought, realizing that she had already used both her mental hands. _"Err, foot - whatever," _she continued with a slight shake to her head, _"I wish we could've met under different circumstances - meeting someone that was competition on a blind date is - awkward."_

"So," Megumi began, breaking into Ranma's thoughts, while at the same time trying to break the ice. "I take it that you two have already met?"

"Yes," Ranma answered as she eyed her date seated across from her. "Earlier today."

The pigtailed boy nodded slightly as he shifted on the vinyl seat, creating a loud, squeaking sound. Tetsuyuki chuckled at the produced sound as if it were the most amusing thing he'd heard. Tenchi looked even more uncomfortable.

_"Oh brother,"_ Ranma mentally commented on Tetsuyuki's antics before continuing. "He was the other kendoist that got - carried away."

"That was you?" Tetsuyuki asked while laughing in his beer while eyeing his roommate. "Tenchi here came back to the room after the match saying how this crazy chick fought like a demon and..."

Tetsuyuki voice trailed off at the look he was receiving from said redhead.

"I'm just good," Ranma commented while narrowing her eyes at Tetsuyuki, "not crazy."

"Tenchi seems to be just as good," Megumi pointed out.

"Yes...," Ranma said to herself more than anyone else. "I wanted to ask you about that," Ranma said as she turn her attention to the boy next to her. "Where did you learn how to fight like that? Some of the moves you did were... unique."

Tenchi squirmed in his seat, earning another loud squeak from the vinyl seat.

Tetsuyuki snorted in laughter again.

"It's a family art," he answered politely, ignoring his roommate.

_"Crap,"_ Ranma thought. _"That means he probably won't show me anything."_

"My grandfather taught me everything," Tenchi continued. "He trained me in the family style of kendo at our shrine in Okayama."

"Your father's a priest?" Ranma asked.

"No, my father's an architect, my grandfather's the shrine keeper," Tenchi clarified.

"Oh," Ranma said as she crossed her legs and leaned over a bit to hear Tenchi better. "And he trained you?"

"Yes," Tenchi nodded, relaxing a bit. "Every summer he'd train me in the family way and more often after we... moved next to the shrine."

The last part was almost lost in the bass of whatever was playing.

"How long has this style been in your family?" Ranma asked while leaning a bit closer to make it easier to communicate in the noisy club. Unconscious of the fact that the move put her face inches from his.

Ranma looked at Tenchi, completely unaware of how much more nervous he was all the sudden.

"A-about s-seven hundred years or s-so," he stammered out.

It was at that moment that Ranma realized how close her face was to his, close enough see his brown eyes in the dim light and to feel his breath against her cheeks. She bolted upright and away from him.

"That's great," she squeaked out loudly before clearing her throat to continue. "How about we get together and spar sometime. I can't seem to find anyone around here to give me a decent workout and you didn't have any problems keeping up with me."

Tenchi nodded, but Ranma couldn't tell if it was out of sincerity or politeness.

"Honestly," Megumi said rolling her eyes as she leaned against Tetsuyuki. "Ranma you're such a romantic. Who else would sit next to a handsome fellow, look him in the eyes and then ask, 'let's get together sometime and beat the hell out of each other' - sheesh."

"Hey!" Ranma defended indigently. "It's not beating the hell out of each other. It's an Art."

Megumi eyed her speculatively, Ranma blinked in return.

"Okay," Ranma conceded. "Maybe it's an artful way of beating the hell out of each other - but it's still an art."

"Well, c'mon. Let's make some artful noise," Megumi said playfully as she scooted over to the outside of the booth, dragging Ranma with her. Tetsuyuki stood to allow the girls out and retook his seat, watching the two girls make their way to the pit next to the stage.

Tetsuyuki leaned over to Tenchi, "What da' you think?"

"She seems... nice enough," Tenchi answered carefully.

"Nice?" Tetsuyuki said as he leered at the girls behinds as they made their way through the crowd. "Heck Tenchi, you need to get your eyes examined - she's a freakin' knockout."

"I'm not that way, I mean, I don't..." Tenchi fumble for words. "I've told you about the problems I've had with the girls back home."

Tetsuyuki starred at Tenchi and shook his head. "Tenchi my man, you have got to get out of your shell every once in a while and live a little. Leave those problems behind before they eat you up. Besides they're way at home and you're here - it's not like they can see what you're doing right now or anything. Right?"

Tenchi smiled politely and nodded while thinking, _"If only you knew."_

Megumi and Ranma made their way through the crowd and entered the pit by the stage.

"So... what do you think?" Megumi prodded Ranma as she flipped through the selections.

"Good muscles, flexible, works out a lot... good with a sword, but probably not much in hand to hand," Ranma replied offhandedly, listing the attributes of her date as she to flipped through selections.

Megumi bopped Ranma playfully on the head with the palm of her hand earning a pout from the redhead. "Not that you boob! I'm talking about Tenchi," Megumi admonished.

Ranma blinked at her roommate, "I... I thought I was talking about Tenchi."

Megumi rolled her eyes on how Ranma could be so dense at times.

Later...

Ranma's voice was tired from singing, but not her body. She was ready to dance.

Ranma loved to dance. It was not the ballroom type dancing she did in her dreams, but it was dancing. First she had to convince her reluctant partner. Tenchi looked as if he never tried dancing before, thus earning a lesson from the Ranma Yonai's Anything Goes Dance Instruction.

Ranma moved with the beat with Tenchi in front doing the same. It took some prodding by Tetsuyuki, Megumi and Ranma to get Tenchi out on the dance floor, but they succeeded.

"You did katas before, like when your dad was teaching you how to use the sword. Right?"

Tenchi nodded, "Yes, but like I said, it was my grandfather that taught me."

"Whatever... look," Ranma said with a wave of her hand. "Treat the dance like a kata, but instead move to the beat of the music. Got it?"

"I don't know..." Tenchi replied, standing in front of her, uncertain.

"You won't know until you try," Ranma affirmed as she grabbed his hand and pulled him across the dance floor. With Tenchi in tow, Ranma lead the way to a relatively uncrowded part of the dance floor.

"Now watch," she instructed. "I'm going to do a basic weapons kata, since that's probably what you're familiar with. Watch how you can turn it into a dance."

Ranma held both of her hands close together, as if she were wielding an invisible sword. She then began to flow through a kata the was familiar to Tenchi, except it was being done in time to the beat of the music and some of the motions were exaggerated.

It was very graceful.

Ranma stopped.

"See? Now you try," she encouraged.

Tenchi sweat-dropped and assumed the starting position, his head bobbing slightly to the beat, trying to find it. Ranma watched as he nervously and vainly tried to find the beat.

"You're trying too hard," Ranma said. "Just go with it."

Tenchi started hesitantly and began to go through the kata. He started jerkily at first, before smoothing out as got more in sync with the music and built more confidence. After Ranma was satisfied that the pigtailed boy got the idea, she joined him.

"See? It's not that hard," Ranma said as she moved with Tenchi to the beat.

Tenchi nodded a affirmative as he continued to move to the music. Ranma took advantage to do two things she loved: Dance and learn new martial arts techniques. However, she was disappointed to find that the kata that Tenchi modified to the dance was a basic one that she already knew.

They kept dancing. Well that's what it looked like. In reality there were choreographing a kendo match. Ranma would thrust out with a hand, treating her arm as if it were a bokken, while sashaying. Tenchi would parry with a bounce to his step, blocking the incoming arm. Both moving in synchronization to the beat that was throbbing from the speakers.

The beat stopped at the end of the song.

Both dancers stopped, frozen in mid mock-battle.

Ranma smiled at Tenchi. "See," she said with a touch of mirth, "that wasn't so hard."

Tenchi smiled and nodded. Suddenly he became self conscious of what he was just doing and without thought, took Ranma's hand and lead her back to the table that they were sharing with their respective roommates. Only to have Ranma drag him out on the dance floor three more times that evening.

It was late. Much later than Ranma intended to stay out, but it was worth it. She got to sing, dance and 'talk shop'. It was nice to talk to someone who knew something about the art, or as Megumi called it the 'artful way of beating the hell out of each other'.

Ranma sighed at that thought.

_"Some people just don't get it,"_ Ranma thought as they made there way back to the campus. _"Megumi should understand just a little of what it means, after all, she uses the art to work out and stay in shape. I just used it to a higher degree."_

The four neared the dorms.

_"One thing I have to do before the night is over,"_ she thought in a determined way. _"I gotta get Tenchi to spar with me some more."_

"Did you two have a good time?" Megumi asked breaking into Ranma's thoughts

"Yes," Ranma replied. "Hey, Tenchi."

"Huh?" Tenchi answered distractedly. "Oh, sorry. Yes?"

"Would you mind if we," Ranma began carefully, as not to give the wrong impression. "I wanna - er, like to know if you mind sparring with me sometime. You're not half bad and I can use the practice."

Tenchi visibly considered this, "Hmmmm, I did promise my grandfather that I would keep up with my practice."

Ranma was hopeful, but kept it hidden.

Tenchi thought a little more before answering firmly, "Sure, why not?"

"Great!" Ranma said enthusiastically. "How about Mondays and Thursdays?"

Megumi and Tetsuyuki watched the exchange with interest.

"Mondays are okay, Thursdays can be tricky. How about Fridays?"

Before Ranma could answer, Megumi answered for her. "Absolutely not. Fridays are for having fun, not artfully beating the hell out of each other."

Ranma sighed.

"Wednesday or Saturday?" Tenchi offered.

Ranma smiled, "Mondays and Wednesdays."

"That's fine with me," Tenchi said with a nod. "Where?"

By now the group had made it to the front of the women's dorm as Ranma thought about a good place to met.

"We could try one of the athletic fields," she thought aloud. "But usually some sports teams have them tied up in the afternoons."

"I have a suggestion," Tetsuyuki piped in.

Ranma nodded for him to continue.

"There's a park not far from here," he said looking at the pair. "Komabano Park. It's just west of here-"

"Oh yeah," Ranma interrupted as she realized where Tetsuyuki was talking about. "It's just south of where I work on the other side of the Ikenoue tracks."

"What do you think?" Megumi asked, joining the conversation.

"Well... isn't some children's hall located there or something?" Ranma asked.

"So?" Megumi asked.

"Megumi," Tenchi explained. "If we start sparring we might frighten some children that may be there."

"Right," Ranma agreed. "I don't want to scare the hell out of a bunch of kids."

"Can you think of anyplace else?" Tetsuyuki asked

Ranma shook her head no. "We'll just have to make sure that no kids are around before we start."

With the deal set, the girls said their good nights before entering the dorm.

-------------

"Thank you for coming to the Folks Crafts Museum," Ranma said polity with a bow. "If you wish for a guided tour, one will start momentarily. If you prefer, you may move about the exhibits on your own at your leisure."

The group of people at the front were a mixed bag of old and young. The old looking about in with interest, like they were remembering fonder times. The younger ones, those around Ranma's age, looked around in what looked like polite boredom.

After collecting the entrance fees, Ranma offered up a friendly smile and ushered the group through the entrance. At the door, Ranma bowed and held it as each person entered the museum proper. There, Mr. Shindo or another one of the guides would take over and lead the group through the rest of the building and the exhibits. Raising from her bow, she was greeted by one of the younger men from the group who looked at her and smiled.

Ranma sighed internally while holding her smile on the outside.

"Hey, I just wanna know - when do you get off?" he asked her as he smiled in an oh-so-knowing-way.

"I'm sorry," Ranma replied in a very polite, even manner while maintaining her smile. "But that exhibit is currently closed."

With that and a motion from her hand, the slightly dejected young man followed the rest of the tour into the building.

Ranma shook her head. At least he wasn't as lame as the last man that tried to pick her up.

Seeing that no one else was in immediate need her attention, Ranma walked over and removed a straw broom from a cubby. She moved forward and proceeded to sweep the dirt, scraps of paper and other debris from the street that managed to work itself into the front of the building. Once she had collected the small pile, she swept it into a dust pan made of bamboo and deposited the waste in a nearby ash can.

"Miss Yonai," Mrs. Katsuragi said walked in from lunch. "It's good to see you keeping yourself busy."

"Yes, ma'am," Ranma said as she bowed to her supervisor.

"And I thought that was a very clever brush off you gave that young man," she added with a smile. "It fit the atmosphere."

Ranma returned the smile, "Yes ma'am, thank you."

--------------

They met upon the field of honor, with weapons drawn and at the ready.

Each sized up the other, measuring their foe's worth against their own.

The woman, with hair of fire and eyes the color of the sky, held her sword low as she gazed upon her opponent with a look of steel. The man, with eyes as brown as the Earth and just as unyielding, gazed back, holding his weapon in higher in mid position.

The sky, growing gray with overcast, threaten to open up and weep upon the field of battle, as if mourning the soon loss of a great warrior. For whomever fell this day would be a great loss for all, diminishing the whole. But honor is a demanding lord, a cruel taskmaster and unforgiving. It was for honor that the two faced each other.

The combatants, held at the ready, waited for a sign, a signal from the very heavens themselves to commence their battle. The battle to prove who...

Ranma shook her head to clear it. _"Man,"_ she thought. _"I'll be glad when I'm through with Literature of the Middle Ages, it's starting to weird me out."_

"Are you ready?" the pigtailed boy asked.

"Sure, whenever you are," Ranma replied with a nod. "Remember, this is a park - let's try and not tear up the real estate."

Tenchi nodded.

It was a nice park near the campus. Full of trees, small wildlife and even sported two small ponds. It also had a gymnasium, tennis courts and a more important to Ranma, room for a good spar.

Both fighters faced each other about ten feet apart and waited. Then on an unspoken signal, they leapt at each other.

A few hot, sweaty hours later.

Ranma crawled over to Tenchi, who had collapsed onto his rear gasping for breath. He held his bokken in his hands, that was against the side of his face, with the tip seated in the ground to support the weight of his upper body. Maneuvering behind him Ranma drew herself up into a seated position and rested her back against his. She was also panting, trying to catch her breath and gather her strength.

"You're -pant - not bad," she commented.

"You're - pant, pant - no slouch yourself," Tenchi said.

Ranma nodded, while unseen by Tenchi, he was able to feel to motion against his back.

"What... what time is it?" Ranma asked finally catching her breath.

Tenchi turned his wrist to peek at the watch face.

"It's half past five," he answered before adding incredulously, "We been at it this long?"

Ranma smirked, even though it wasn't seen by Tenchi it carried in her voice, "Time flies when you're having fun."

"Yeah...," Tenchi softly replied.

"I gotta hand it to you. No one has been able to keep up with me like you have," Ranma said while mentally adding, _"unless I tap into my ki or Senshi powers."_

"Er... Thanks," Tenchi replied while pulling at his pigtail nervously.

"I gotta met your grandfather sometime," Ranma continued. "I'd bet he can kick ass, er - I mean, he must be very skilled."

"He'd probably enjoy it," Tenchi said as he smiled. "He's better than me and I just can't seem to quite be good enough to beat him."

"Keep practicing with me and you'll surprise him next time you met," Ranma commented.

They both sat on the ground, in companionable silence for a few moments.

"So," Ranma ventured. "What's home like?"

Tenchi considered the question.

"Okayama is... nice. Where I live it's very rural. The mountains , the trees, the lake...," his voice drifted off.

"Sounds nice," Ranma commented. "Sounds peaceful."

Tenchi snorted. Ranma raised an eyebrow to this. Tenchi shifted around to face Ranma, Ranma stopped leaning against his back to accommodate his movement.

Tenchi looked at Ranma as if he were contemplating something. Ranma looked at him quizzically.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing. It's just that home would be peaceful if it weren't for the fighting," Tenchi confessed.

"Fighting?" Ranma questioned. "Oh yeah. Your roommate said something about a bunch of girls after you or something," Ranma said offhandedly. Noticing the look that Tenchi was giving her, she quickly added, "Don't worry, I've been there, done that, don't want to do it again. Ever."

It was Tenchi's turn to raise an eyebrow. Ranma thought for a moment before continuing.

"You see, my... ex-father was a very dishonorable man," Ranma explained. "He only thought about two things: himself and his stomach. He never thought twice about selling me off to get whatever he wanted."

Tenchi looked at Ranma with a look of sympathetic horror.

"He didn't get as far prostituting me - yet," Ranma added quickly, in case Tenchi got the wrong idea. "But he promised my hand in marriage to god knows how many people to get what he wanted, sometimes it was nothing more than a simple meal."

"What happen then?" Tenchi asked, his curiosity roused.

"Well, we settled at the dojo of an old friend of his, a training partner from way back, he wanted me to marry one of his friends - sons to join the schools. While we stayed in one spot, that gave time for people who wanted to collect on his worthless promises to find us."

Silence fell between the two, giving Ranma time to gather her thoughts.

"Before you know it, I had three or four people trying to get me to marry them. They did it in the name of their honor, imagined love for me, or they thought that they already owned me. They hounded me to make a choice and generally made my life a living hell. I don't think any of them truly cared about what I felt or what I wanted."

Tenchi waited in silence of the redhead to continue.

"My ex-father really intended for me to marry one of his friends sons to join the martial arts schools through marriage. When that fell through he wanted marry his widowed friend. I refused and he disowned me."

Tenchi thought on Ranma's words before responding. "But wouldn't picking or settling down with one of your fiancees put an end to your problems? I mean, if you went with one, wouldn't the others give up?"

Ranma snorted, "Not on your life. I couldn't pick one because that would be like giving the other, jilted fiances a license to kill or start a blood feud. They were a stubborn lot and it wouldn't have been pretty. I had to be very careful not to pick one."

"That bad?" Tenchi asked.

Ranma nodded.

"What about your mother?' Tenchi asked. "What did she think about this?"

"Nothing" Ranma said bitterly. "My ex-father took me away from her to train in the family art when I was five. For the longest time I thought she was dead. When I finally met her after ten years, she might as well have been."

Tenchi looked at his sparring partner carefully, like he was studying her. "I'm sorry," he finally said softly.

Ranma sighed. "Don't be. In the end, getting disowned was probably the best thing that old fool did to me."

A heavy silence fell between them, one that was felt. In the distance, a dog bark and the muffled chatter of people was heard.

Then a low howl was heard. Tenchi held his stomach.

"Hungry?" Ranma asked with a touch of humor.

Tenchi nodded and commented, "Let's get something to eat - I'm starved."

Ranma's stomach rumbled in agreement.

She stood, a little wavering at first, and extended a hand to assist her sparring partner up. He took it without thought and allowed himself to be pulled up into a standing position. Together, with their bokkens over their shoulders, they made their way toward the campus and its cafeteria.

-----------------

Ranma jotted down the important bits as the instructor explained how, what and when you would use a particular equation. Ranma thought the subject boring, but managed to stay awake and actually learn something.

When you're paying for something as expensive as a college education, you paid attention.

Ranma was somewhat disappointed in higher education. She found it somewhat vexing how some courses could be ridiculously easy while others more challenging. She was expecting every course to mentally push her to the limits. Instead she found herself breezing through about half of her course work, with chemistry being the only course that pushed her. Dr. Kagaku was a picky bastard at times, but because of that she felt that she was learning a lot.

Her fellow students seemed more interested in activities outside of school then any of their classes. A far cry from the 'always studying and taking tests in a sterile environment' she had first envisioned. She was still disturbed through about how seemingly easy some of her courses were.

Ranma eventually decided that since most of her classes were freshmen level, it was all a warm up for the harder stuff to come later.

In any case, she would keep on her toes.

-------------

It was after another hard sparring session when Tenchi and Ranma made their way back onto the campus. Since beginning their sparring sessions weeks ago, both fighters had become more an more focused in their fighting styles. Though they kept each session down to a hour or two the sheer intensity that they put into it more than made up the limited time they committed to it.

"That was great," Ranma said offhandedly. Sweat dripped from her body, soaking her gi. "There's nothing like a good fight on a spring afternoon to work up an appetite."

Tenchi nodded in agreement. He was also coated in a film of sweat that soaked his outfit. They both made a beeline for something to eat.

"Yeah. I notice that I'm getting better," he said. "I can't wait to try some of the things you showed me on my grandfather."

The conversation kept on the lines of forms used and ways to improve them. Ranma focusing her efforts on getting Tenchi to switch between two unrelated forms smoothly and Tenchi on the basics of some of his families art.

Upon entering the cafeteria, so engrossed in their conversation, that they didn't notice that the crowd parted for them. Waiting in the now sparse line, they collected their food. Spying their roommates at one of the round tables, made their way over to them.

"Mind if we sit with you?" Ranma asked the seated couple.

"No, not at all - damn! What's that smell?" Tetsuyuki said while holding his nose.

Megumi backed away from the standing pair, making a screeching sound with her chair.

"Ranma! I mean, I don't mean to be rude, but you really stink," Megumi said, turning slightly green.

"Huh?" Ranma said stupidly.

"You too Tenchi," Megumi added. "The both of you need to shower - big time."

"We know how much fun it is to work up a sweat," Tetsuyuki said in his annoying suggestive manner. "But can you guys keep it to yourselves?"

The still standing pair blink-blinked. Ranma, in a very unfeminine move, sniffed at her armpits and quickly move her face away from the offending body part. Tenchi just took a deep breath through his nose and wrinkled it. Both turned to one another.

"I think was should find a more isolated spot to eat and then take a quick shower," Tenchi suggested. Ranma replied with a nod and followed Tenchi to an empty part of the cafeteria.

"I don't know about you, Ranma commented while finishing her meal. "Showers are fine, but I could go for a good, long soak."

Tenchi nodded in agreement. "I hear that, but I don't know of any bathhouses around here."

"There's gotta be some, somewhere," Ranma said. "Everybody has showers on campus, so there's gotta be a bathhouse around nearby."

"Tell you what," Tenchi said, still formulating a plan. "Let's go back to our dorms and grab a change of clothes. I'll also grab that local directory guide that came in everyone's room and we'll check it out."

Ranma smiled at him and nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

After a quick look at the index, the two smelly martial artists stood before a two story structure, constructed with modern materials sporting a traditional tiled roof. It looked more like a temple than a bath house. The short walk leading to the entrance had a small rock garden on ether side and the sound of water dripping form somewhere filled the air. A sign, lit by a overhead lantern, simply read: Welcome to Meguro Bath.

"Wow, this looks like a nice place," Ranma commented.

"Shall we?" Tenchi said with a gesture.

Upon entering, the pair took in the surroundings. It interior was light in color contrasting with the dark beams that lined the high ceiling, fifteen feet overhead. A shoe locker was arranged immediately at the entrance where they removed their shoes and stowed them in one of the cubbies. Ranma and Tenchi made their way slightly deeper into the building, stopping at the high sitting, horseshoe shaped platform where the female attendant took their money and welcomed them to the baths. The platform also gave the attendant a commanding view of both sides of the bath.

"Well, I guess I'll see you in about an hour?" Ranma said.

Tenchi nodded, "That should be enough time to wash and soak," he said.

With that, the two parted and each headed for the sides of the bath for their sexes.

Ranma found an empty locker and stripped to her birthday suit. She placed her dirty clothes in a plastic bag that she had brought and put them into the basket. In her gym bag, she had brought along some clean ones to change into later. Walking though the rest of the locker room, she enjoyed the feel of the tatami mats under her feet and idly noticed the baby beds placed along the interior wall opposite the lockers. Two held the sleeping forms of babies in them, the other three were empty.

Before entering the bathing area, Ranma picked up a washcloth from a stack and a small 'sample-size' bar of soap that were provided by the bath house. Behind the stacks, was a sign for the attendees of the bath house to please put the used washcloths in the indicated hampers when done and to dispose of used bars of soap in the trash.

Finding a stool in the moderately filled room, Ranma pulled up to one of the faucets and filled the bucket that was resting before it. Dunking the water over her several times, she proceeded to scrub vigorously. She also took the time to look about her. The room was long with a row of faucets on ether side the walls and a row of double sided faucets down the middle. At the end of the room was the bath itself. The bath was filled with women of various ages, some with children.

The men's and women's side of the bath was divided by a wall of about six feet in height.

_"Glad we found this place," _she thought as she went through her second scrubbing. _"I would like to make this a habit after sparring, but before dinner."_

A little boy no older than four came running through the wash room, right by the seated Ranma. As carefree as only four year olds can be.

"Ranma!" a women's voice rang out. A middle aged women approached the redhead with a purpose.

Ranma froze and her mind raced, _"Do I know her? She doesn't look familiar. I don't think..."_

Only to have her thoughts derailed.

"Ranma, what have I told you about running in the bath?" the older lady said scoldingly.

Ranma, still seated, blink-blinked.

"Sorry mommy," a little voice from behind Ranma said.

"You come right here, young man," the woman commanded before breaking into a smile. "Now Ranma, you know what I said about running in places like this..."

Ranma continued to blink-blink. _"What in the hey?_" she thought as she watched the women lead the child away, gently scolding him all the way.

Ranma felt lost, watching the exchange between mother and child.

_"Did my mother ever love me?"_ she quietly lamented to herself.

Shrugging off the oncoming depression, she returned to rinsing off the remaining soap. Ranma then disposed of the washcloth and the remains of the bar of soap and head for the bath for a soak. Before approaching the bath, Ranma grabbed another towel and did her long hair up into it.

Easing herself into the hot water, Ranma stopped as she got used to the temperature. She let out a tired sigh as she sat down fully.

_"This feels so good,"_ she thought as she leaned back against the side of the bath, relaxing in its warmth. _"I definitely have to do this more often."_

She luxuriated in the waters, letting the tension of the day flow out of her body as the waters caress her skin. With her head resting against the side, the rest of her body slightly floated while still remaining submerged. She was buoyant enough that she barely rested against the bottom of the bath. Ranma's legs and arms felt weightless in the water as her breasts floated and bobbed freely just under the surface of the water. It felt literally like being wrapped in a warm comforter and floating in the weightlessness of space.

Very comfy.

Next thing Ranma knew the female attendant was gently shaking her.

"Miss?" the attendant asked as she gently shook Ranma again. "Miss. Are you awake?"

"Huh? Wha-?" Ranma asked while sitting more fully up, making her body anchor more firmly against the baths bottom.

"Sorry to bother you Miss," the attendant explained apologetically with a smile. "But your boyfriend is waiting up front for you and he got worried."

"Huh? Oh, sorry," Ranma finally realized that she had fallen asleep. Then she blinked. "Wait. How did you know it was me?"

"Your boyfriend said that you had red hair," she explained while still smiling. "And you're the only one in here with red hair."

Ranma nodded, "Tell him I'll be out in a minute." She was so groggy from the hot bath she didn't even dispute the "B" word.

Ranma rubbed her eyes and studied her pruned hands.

"Yeck. How long was I in here?" she wondered aloud.

"About an hour," the attendant answered. "Please excuse me, I must return to my post."

The attendant bowed and headed off to resume her station at the front. Ranma stood up letting the warm water cascade off her body, replaced by the coolness of the room. Stepping out of the bath, she rubbed her arms as goose-bumps sprouted all over her flush body and ignored the other parts that were reacting to the coolness.

Walking by one of the many mirrors, Ranma noted her head was still wrapped in the towel, hiding her hair completely.

_"How did she know that I had red..." _she thought before her eyes drifted downward. _"Oh."_

"Sorry I kept you waiting," she said to Tenchi, after changing into the fresh set of clothes she had brought. "I fell asleep in the bath."

"That's all right," he smiled. "I almost did the same thing."

"Man, that felt good though, we gotta do this more often," she stated as she stepped through the door being held open by Tenchi.

"I was thinking of after sparring but before dinner," Tenchi commented as he followed Ranma out into the sidewalk.

Ranma smiled, "That sounds great. I thought the same thing before I fell asleep."

"Great minds think alike," he quipped as they made their way back toward their dorms.

------------------

Ranma dashed through the campus on her way to work. Her last class went a little long and she was running behind because of that. She could do better time jumping above the wide crowded walkway, or roof hop like she did in days of old. But it was a work day and that meant that she was wearing one of her good skirts and leaping above the crowd would just give everyone a free show - especially since she forgot to do laundry yesterday.

_"I'm gonna be late. I'm gonna be late,"_ she thought over and over as she dodged through the mob of fellow students that were making their own way around.

_"Someone asked one lousy question at the end of class and Dr. Kagaku makes a lecture out of it," _as she remembered the reason why she was running late. _"A simple yes or no would've done."_

As she neared the western edge of the campus and its wall, Ranma decided to throw caution into the wind.

_"Screw modestly, I don't wanna be late," _she prepared for the leap over the wall. _"Besides, there is no one around."_

She leapt over the wall with ease, and was greeted by catcalls and whistles from the other side as her skirt flew up revealing the panties underneath. Ranma swore silently to herself . She was wearing her least favorite pair - forest green in color, semitransparent and very, very lacy.

The only reason she had a pair of panties like that was because it was a 'gag gift' from Michiko for her eighteenth birthday. "It goes with your hair," was Michiko's comment when Ranma first held it up for her friends to see.

_"I wouldn't be wearing these if I did my wash like I was supposed too," _she sighed as she entered the grounds of the Folks Crafts Museum. _"At least I made it with time to spare."_

Ranma smiled as she slipped into her work jacket, thinking of the planned revenge she was going to get on Michiko's next birthday: a transparent pink thong.

Revenge would be sweet.

-------------

"I'm hungry," Ranma said as she stretched out from her chair. Cocking her head , she looked at the alarm clock placed near her bed. "I'm going to grab something to eat. Want to join me?"

Megumi looked at the time and replied, "If you can wait five minutes, I can. I want to finish this first."

Ranma nodded and settled back into her chair and thumbed through her text book. She flipped though a few pages and hadn't really even begun to read when Megumi eyed the clock on her desk and abruptly announced, "Oh. Let's go." Quickly setting her pen down next to her work, she scampered over to where they kept their shoes by the front door.

Ranma blinked over the book in her hands before asking, "I thought you wanted to finish what you were doing first?"

"This can wait," she said while slipping on her shoes. "I'm hungry and this can wait. C'mon, let's go."

Ranma replied with a shrug of her shoulders and slipped into her shoes as well.

Soon after, Ranma and Megumi made their way to the nearby cafeteria and waited in line as other students that were being served. It was a big, clean and decorated impersonally. Each rectangular table in the room sat six people and were arranged in long rows with breaks between every two or three groups. The circular tables seated four and were scattered individually around the large room. The fluorescent lights that reflected off the smooth surface of the floor were annoying to the eyes and the off white color of the walls didn't help either.

The food was okay most of the time. Meaning that it wasn't anything special and it kept you alive. The only time that it got bad was when they had leftovers - in those occasions, toxic waste looked better than what was served. Even at those times, the food wouldn't be as deadly as a certain tomboy's cooking from two years ago, but it would taste almost as bad.

"I hope it's something decent today," Megumi commented. "I hate when they try to push leftovers."

Ranma nodded, "I know, if it's bad enough the first time around, what makes them think it will improve with age?"

"Hey girls, what's up?" a voice called from behind the pair.

"Tetsuyuki! Tenchi! It's good to see you two," Megumi said with a smile. "Imagine running into you here."

Tenchi nodded, "Yeah, we usually eat later than this, but Tetsuyuki here insisted that we eat first before hitting the books tonight."

Tetsuyuki nodded," I thought it would be a good idea, that way we don't have to worry about missing out on something to eat."

"We never have before," Tenchi commented.

"Change will do us good," Tetsuyuki replied, then added with a smile, "Besides we get to eat with two beautiful young ladies."

Ranma felt irritated with Tetsuyuki. There was something about the man that just made her skin crawl. But since her roommate seemed to like him, she kept her tongue.

"Hi Tenchi," Ranma address said person. "How's the shoulder?"

Tenchi smiled, "Fine. Your ankle?"

"A little stiff, but it'll be all right," Ranma answered. "I just won't try any fancy moves next time like I did yesterday, that's all."

Tenchi was about to say something more before Tetsuyuki interrupted with a smile, "You guys are seeing each other?"

Tenchi responded without thought, "Yes, we agreed to spar about twice a week now."

"Sparring?! No dating?" Megumi asked, looking puzzled between the two.

"No. It's not like that," Ranma explained. "Tenchi promised his grandfather that he'd keep up on his sword practice and I needed someone to challenge me between visits from my Master."

"Ranma," Megumi commented, "you don't have a romantic bone in your body, do you?"

Ranma thought seriously about that before answering, "If I did, it got broken a long time ago."

After a relatively quiet meal, the four strolled back to there dorms. Tenchi and Ranma walked silently side by side, following behind Megumi and Tetsuyuki.

"You mind if I ask you something?" Tenchi asked quietly, hesitantly.

"Shoot."

"What did you mean mean about, well, your 'romantic bone' being broken?"

"Oh. That," Ranma answered in a dismissive way. "It's just that a long time ago, I had people who I thought of as family... they turned their backs on me, betrayed me when I needed them the most. Any notion of love and romance and that kinda stuff took a nose dive after that."

"Oh. I'm sorry I didn't mean to pry."

"It's okay," Ranma said with a wave of her hand. "That was years ago and now I'm with a family that pretty much restored my faith in such things."

Tenchi fell into silent contemplation.

"I see...," he worked out slowly, "but you're still afraid that you might be hurt or betrayed again, right?"

It was Ranma's turn for silent contemplation.

"As much as I love and care for my adopted family - that is... something that I fear," Ranma admitted softly.

Silence fell between the two again, this time an uncomfortable one.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked," Tenchi said apologetically.

"No," Ranma said in the same soft voice before switching to a more confident one. "It's all right - like I said, it was a long time ago."

-------------

"Now class, I know I've harped about this many times in the past," Dr. Kagaku said with a scowl on his face. "But since some of you last Friday chose to ignore safety regulations, I am forced to go over it again."

Ranma joined the class as it groaned as a whole.

"Most of you are following the rules," he continued, "and I thank you. I am well aware that it is warming up comfortably outside, however that is not an excuse for the wearing of sandals in the lab area."

Many in the class glared at the guilty parties.

"And I know that safety glasses are not the most chic thing to wear, but I do believe that they work better covering the eyes and not as hair decorations."

Some of the girls in the class shifted uncomfortably.

"Since some chose not to take these rules seriously, I am forced to use... extreme measures. Therefore from here on out, anyone caught not adhering to the safety codes will receive a failing grade for that assignment. Do I make my self clear?"

"Yes sir," the class chorused.

Dr. Kagaku eyes seemed to glare at each and every member of the class.

"Good," he finally said after satisfying himself that his point had been made. "Now maybe we can move on to more interesting matters. Today we will cover chapters six through eight. I assume that all of you have already read the material..."

------------

Ranma was writing.

Make that Ranma was trying to write.

It was torture, pure torture.

She had completed her fourth draft of her term paper and she had just finished rereading it. It was better than the last draft, but she knew it still left something to be desired. After looking too long at her work, she wasn't sure if what she was reading was what she wrote, or if it was what she thought she wrote.

Either way her brain was tired.

A soft snore came from across the small room as Megumi rolled over onto her back. Ranma never could figure out how Megumi could keep her GPA up as little as she seemed to study. That made Ranma come to three conclusions on her roommate: she was very smart, she might have some secret techniques for studying or may be a combination of the two.

Ranma sighed. It was late. Later than she really wanted it to be. With classes in the morning, work mid-day and more classes in the afternoon, she had a full day laid out for her tomorrow. It didn't help that she had a sparring match planned with Tenchi in the evening.

_"I could drop that and rest up,"_ she thought, _"but I don't want to give up the only highlight of my day."_

With a yawn and a stretch, Ranma snapped off the desk light and felt her way to her waiting bed.

-------------

Sweat danced off Ranma's brow as she parried another assault from Tenchi. It was becoming a welcome habit, sparring with Tenchi twice a week. Ranma felt she was keeping on top of her form and was slowly picking up some of Tenchi's style by observation and being on the other end of the fight.

_"If this keeps up, I'll have to tap into my ki to keep up with him,"_ Ranma thought grimly.

It was Ranma's turn to go on the offensive. She weaved around Tenchi's defenses and almost tagged him. At the last instant however, Tenchi moved slightly sideways avoiding the blade portion of Ranma's bokken. Ranma retracted it before she over extended herself, and used her bokken to block a sweep from Tenchi.

_"Crap,_" Ranma thought in frustration. _"Could he be tapping into - of course! I'm such an idiot! There was something goofy with his ki the first time we met. I never got around to checking that out."_

Dodge. Parry. Thrust.

_"Let's see what's there,"_ she thought as she focused on her opponents ki. Ranma took the time and studied Tenchi - carefully, as she dodge and blocked his attacks. Her brow furrowed.

_"There is something going on with his ki - it's like it's drawing or absorbing ki from the surrounding... space?"_

She narrowed her eyes and studied the flow around Tenchi as much as her martial arts training and non-Senshi state would allow.

_"It's not being absorbed, it's being generated and funneled around him in a pattern," _she looked about the pigtailed boy, studying the flow of energy that surrounded him. _"It's coming around and focusing on him from... one... two... three directions with him at the center, like arms or something."_

Studying the patterns in detail, she concluded, _"Most of the power seems to be in in a powered down or inert state. It also seems that each arm is made up of groups of three smaller arms, totaling nine power arms around him."_

Ranma dodged another round of attacks by Tenchi. She was still on the defensive, studying Tenchi's ki when his bokken almost connected with her shoulder. She let out a grunt from the effort needed to reverse her blade to block it.

_"This type of energy almost looks like something the Senshi have," _she concluded._ "I wonder if he is even aware of this... maybe not. Maybe he has to... transform in some way to fully use it."_

Then a thought struck her as she dodged yet another thrust.

_"Could he be another male Senshi like Tuxedo Mask? I have to get a hold of Ami and have her look it up on the Mercury computer."_

Ranma filed that bit away as she turned her full attention back to the fight and switched from defense to offense.

Another sweaty hour later...

After the spar the two found themselves in what was becoming a familiar position: sitting on the ground, back to back, talking.

"Ya' know," Ranma began. "I told you about the problems I had, what about you? I mean what's with these girls that hound you back home?"

Tenchi though as he leaned his back into Ranma's.

"Well, there are two main ones who - well, want me. They fight over me constantly. I tried to keep the peace, but sometimes it was too much for me."

"That bad?" Ranma asked. "Most guys would be thrilled to have women fighting over them."

"Were you thrilled to have three or four guys fighting over you?" Tenchi shot back, a little more forcefully then he intended. "Sorry, it's just not a fun situation to be in."

"I hear that," Ranma agreed. "I'm sure that there didn't go as far as my suitors did. Hell, they'd knock down walls, damage buildings, try drugs, mind manipulations and all kinds of other stuff to try and get me. And in the end they would blame me for their fights."

Tenchi nodded. "I just wish those two would get along," Tenchi mumbled before continuing. "After those two got finished fighting, the house would be so damaged that we practically had to rebuild it."

"But let me guess, through all of this you didn't want to really hurt any of their feelings," Ranma said. "Right?"

Tenchi nodded.

"Well for what it's worth, you sounded like you had the same type of problems I did," Ranma commented.

"What did you do to solve them?"

"I got disowned."

Tenchi remained silent as he thought about one of the previous conversations he had with his sparring partner and nodded. The silence that fell between them grew allowing the sounds of the park to intrude. Wind swept by, making the leaves in the surrounding trees rustle and the making Ranma's long, red mane move about.

"Tenchi?" Ranma asked, breaking the stillness between them.

"Yes?"

"I notice that you always mention your grandfather. You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but what about your folks? What did they think about your situation?"

Tenchi remained quiet for a few moments before answering, "My mom passed away when I was young, my dad... well, he's always working and he's kinda of a pervert."

"A pervert?"

Tenchi nodded as he continued to lean against Ranma's back. "Yeah. One time, about two years ago, one one the girls tried to sneak into my bed. Instead of putting a stop to it, he grabbed a camcorder to try and tape any... results."

Ranma thought of the implications of that statement.

"Eww," Ranma said while wrinkling her nose. "He is a pervert."

"Right," Tenchi agreed.

------------

Ranma knocked on the door and waited.

After a short wait, a girl, that Ranma assumed was Ami's roommate, answered the door. She had shoulder length jet black hair, medium built, a heart shaped face with expressive eyes and short. But still slightly taller than Ranma.

Ranma sighed, was everyone taller than her?

"May I help you?" the girl asked with a musical voice.

"Oh," Ranma started sheepishly. "Is Ami here? I really need to talk to her."

"She's in the shower right now," the girl answered. "She shouldn't be long though. You're welcome to come in and wait if you want."

Ranma thought about it for the briefest of moments before answering, "No. That's alright. Can you tell her that Ranma dropped by and to get with -"

"Eriko, who's at the door?" came a voice from within.

"Oh. Ami someone is here to see you," the girl then said over her shoulder before turning her attention back to Ranma. "She's out of the shower. Come on in."

Ranma entered the room that was a clone of the one she shared with Megumi. Ami was standing in the middle of the living area between the beds, wrapped in a yellow robe with a beige towel around her hair.

"Ranma! This is a surprise," Ami said as a greeting to the redhead. "What brings you here?"

Umm...." Ranma started, eyeing Ami's roommate.

"Oh. Sorry," Ami said, making the introductions. "Ranma this is Eriko Akutagawa. She's my roommate from Sapporo. Eriko this is Ranma Yonai. Ranma's also from Juuban."

"Hi", "Pleased to met you." The two girls said.

"What brings you by?" Ami inquired while drying her hair.

"I have a... computer question for you," Ranma answered carefully. "Can you get away and help me with it?"

Ami caught the tone and understood what Ranma was getting at.

"Sure. Give me a minute to get dressed and we'll head on out."

"Thanks Ami," Ranma said. Turning her attention to Ami's roommate Ranma struck up a conversation while Ami sorted through her drawers for something to wear.

"So Eriko, what are you majoring in?"

"Well, I'm concentrating on getting my base courses out of the way," she answered softly, uncertainly. "But I hope to major in microbiology. You?"

"Chemistry," Ranma replied with a smile while thinking, _"Man, this girl is mousy."_

"Okay," Ami chimed in. "I'm ready."

Ranma blink-blinked at that and thought,_ "Since when did she start getting ready to go anywhere fast? Oh yeah, that was Usagi."_

"It was nice meeting you Eriko. Hope to see you around," Ranma said polity.

Eriko smiled thinly and nodded.

Soon both fellow Senshi were walking in the open space between some of the dorms and the gymnasium, the larger of the two, heading for a more open part of the campus. Ranma scanned the area nearby with her much muted senshi abilities to make sure there were no other people around.

"We're alone," Ranma said as they continued to make their way toward the athletic ground, the one with the track. It was a good place to talk, it was open enough to spot anyone coming upon them and two girls out for a stroll on the track didn't draw any attention to those who happened to see them.

"What's up?" Ami asked the redhead beside her as they walked.

"I need you to look in the Lunar archives and see if any other male scouts were created," Ranma spoke in a quiet, even voice.

A silence fell between the pair as Ami digested what was said.

"Another male scout? Like Tuxedo Mask? Why?" Ami asked in a clarifying way.

Ranma nodded, "Yeah. There's something weird about my sparring partner. His ki is... really unusual. It's different in many ways from what we have, that is what the Senshi have, but similar enough to make me wonder."

"You mean to tell me you're going out with a guy that might be a Senshi?" Ami asked.

"No, I'm not going out with him," Ranma explained, heading off any romantic notions in Ami's head. "He's just a sparring partner. Anyway, can you look it up please?"

Ami nodded. "Sure. If there is another male scout, he should be in the computer. I'll check it out later tonight after I finish using the computer for my homework and let you know if I find out anything. If it's classified like your files were, I'd have to wait and get Usagi to help me with it."

Ranma nodded absently before blink-blinking.

"You use your computer for school work?" Ranma asked, slightly alarmed. "Isn't that like... cheating or something?"

"No," Ami answered slightly defensive. "It's not cheating. I'm using it as anyone else would do to look up information and research from the internet."

"With the Mercury Computer?!" Ranma exclaimed.

Ami shrugged her shoulders. "It's not like my roommate ever noticed anything. Besides, I configured it to look more like an ordinary laptop. My roommate has a laptop that's about the size of the Mercury computer and uses that to look up stuff - so who's going to know the difference?"

"With the Mercury Computer?!" Ranma exclaimed again.

Ami sighed.

"Ranma, you really need to learn to relax. It's okay. Okay?"

Ranma sighed and nodded before saying in a slightly claimer voice, "Okay."

"I'm heading home this weekend to visit my mom. How about you?" Ami asked.

"Can't, I've got to work this Saturday," Ranma replied. "Anyway Michiko won't be home until next week, so I'm planning on going then and it's only a day trip."

Ami nodded. "Anyway, like I was saying, if I can't find anything right off the bat, I'll see about getting together with Usagi - you know what that means."

Ranma nodded and thought, _"After all this time, you think Usagi would figure out how to use a computer."_

With that the two girls headed back towards the dorms.

----------------

----------------


	22. University Part 3

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

---------------------

---------------------

University Part 3

-----------------

Tenchi worked the math problem in front of him as his roommate flitted about, getting ready for the evening's activities. He was trying to concentrate, but the noises that Tetsuyuki made "getting dolled up for the babes" made it almost impossible. Tenchi sighed in defeat.

He sat and watched Tetsuyuki as he moved about his cluttered side of the dorm room. The room was configured exactly like the rooms in the girl's dorms. While Tenchi kept his side of the room neat and relatively orderly, Tetsuyuki's side looked like the aftermath of an earthquake. Tenchi drew the line after a half eaten box of instant noodles had been left atop Tetsuyuki's desk - for two weeks.

"Going out?" Tenchi asked, making small talk while hoping that he would get some peace and quiet.

"Yes, we are," Tetsuyuki answered.

Tenchi blink-blinked. "We?" he said. "I can't Tetsuyuki, I have to finish this before the weekend is over."

"That's what tomorrow is for," Tetsuyuki said smartly. "C'mon, man. You don't want to disappoint the babes."

Tenchi sighed as he stared at his math book. He knew this was a losing battle.

"C'mon, Tenchi," Tetsuyuki prodded. "You mean to tell me you don't want to see Ranma? She's expecting you, you know."

Tenchi considered that.

_"She's expecting me, huh?" _he thought. _"Probably wants to talk martial arts."_

"Okay," Tenchi relented. "If she expecting me, I'll go."

Tetsuyuki nodded his head and returned to 'spiffing' himself up.

"So," Tetsuyuki started casually as looked at his reflection in the mirror. He was poofing up his tip dyed hair some more. "How are you and her getting along anyways?"

"Okay, I guess," Tenchi answered as he hunted his shoes down. "She seems nice enough and she's keeping me in shape."

"Oh I bet she does," Tetsuyuki said suggestively as he finished with his hair. "How far have you gotten with her?"

"Oh, we did some iaido the other day," Tenchi answered nonchalantly.

"Iaido?" Tetsuyuki queried. "Is that from the Kama Sutra or something?"

"From who?" Tenchi asked.

"Ya know," Tetsuyuki said. "The Kama Sutra"

Tenchi stared at his roommate blankly.

"That old book with about a hundred sex positions in it," Tetsuyuki explained.

"Sex?! No!" Tenchi shot out indignantly. "I'm talking about handling your opponent without moving from your spot, not sex."

"Sword play?" Tetsuyuki asked.

Tenchi nodded.

"Tenchi, I don't know about you sometimes," Tetsuyuki commented while shaking his head. "All you do with her is play with your swords," he then leaned close to Tenchi and quietly added, wiggling his eyebrows, "you know there are other ways two can play."

"It's not like that," Tenchi defended. "She's just a friend. Nothing more."

Tetsuyuki looked at his seated roommate and studied him.

"Then you wouldn't mind if I ask her out sometime?" Tetsuyuki finally asked, leaning back away from Tenchi.

Tenchi froze for the briefest of instances, considering the question. It bothered him for some reason. He then shook his head.

"No, of course not," he answered firmly. "But what about Megumi? Aren't you two getting along?"

"Yeah, everything's great now," Tetsuyuki answered smartly. "I'm just planning ahead, just in case things sour. That's all."

Tenchi just shook his head as he readied himself for the night.

Then the phone rang.

At the cafeteria...

Tetsuyuki sat down next to Megumi as Ranma ate her meal.

"How's it going ladies?" he asked.

"Pretty good," Megumi answered. "Where's your roommate?"

"He's coming," Tetsuyuki explained while shoveling some rice into his face. "He's dealing with some problems from home."

"Oh," Ranma asked curious to what was going on. "What kind of problems?"

"Didn't ask," Tetsuyuki answered. "But, he was pretty irate with whomever was on the other end of the phone."

Ranma nodded and returned to her meal, tuning out her roommate and her boyfriend's conversation. In spite of Tetsuyuki's assertion that Tenchi would show up, he didn't that evening's meal.

---------------

Ranma reached over and picked up the ringing phone from the desk of her roommates where it rested.

"Hello?" she asked into the receiver.

"Ranma?" the voice on the other end asked.

"This is she. Who may I ask is calling?"

"Ranma, it's me. Ami."

"Oh! Hi Ami. Sorry, you didn't sound like you. What's up?"

"Just calling to let you know I didn't find anything on that computer problem you were having."

"Computer problem? What com-, Oh! That. You found nothing?"

"That's right. I'm going home this weekend, so I'll try and get together with Usagi and see if we can find out anything that way."

"Sorry to hear that."

"Me too."

-----------------

School was going much better than Ranma expected, suspiciously so.

She had time to reflect on this unexpected development many times as she walked the campus from one class to another.

_"When are the instructors going to hit us with the hard stuff?"_ Ranma groused to herself. _"They gotta be holding back or something. College can't be this easy."_

She weaved around a group of students that were congregating in conversation, obstructing part of the walkway.

_"At least Dr. Kagaku is challenging me," _she thought. _"But even that class is going smoothly."_

Except for an occasional misfire in the lab portion of chemistry, she was doing more than fine in that class.

_"I'm glad I wasn't responsible for the last fire in the lab,"_ Ranma thought as she remembered the incident. The chewing out given to the guilty party wasn't pretty.

_"Poor Hikaru," _Ranma lamented her classmate._ "It was an honest mistake."_

The problem now facing Ranma was boredom. When she wasn't studying, working or being dragged to The Cute Rabbit by Megumi, she had plenty of time with nothing to do. There was only so much studying a person could do, so many hours they could work and a limit to singing and dancing.

For martial arts however, there was never such a thing as too much, too long or a limit.

_"There is no such thing as too much martial arts,"_ Ranma thought with a smile._ "I hope Tenchi is enjoying our twice, sometime three times weekly sparring sessions like I am."_

She approached the building for her next class. _"It's the highlight of my day."_

As she entered the building, some random guy held the door open for her as he was exiting. She rewarded him with a smile and continued on.

_"Although Tenchi has been moody lately,"_ she reflected on the past few sessions they'd had. _"It's anything from cheery to sour."_

Entering her classroom, she found her seat.

_"I wish I could help him,"_ she batted that though around her head before shaking it. _"But I don't have the right to pry."_

-----------------

Tenchi looked forward to his matches with Ranma. It was a good way to wind down the day and relax.

_"At least she isn't trying to claim me or marry me like the others," _he thought as he approached the park where they sparred. _"Then again, she doesn't know I'm a intergalactic prince." _

Tenchi smiled as he saw Ranma already at the meeting place, going through some warm up katas. He slowed his approach and watched as she flowed through one form into the next. Her long, red hair, done up into a ponytail, danced behind her, accentuating the gracefulness of every move she made. Her body swayed in one direction as she moved her bokken in the opposite. This didn't seem to diminish the power of the blow and it looked more like a dance than a kata.

The focus, the concentration on her face was clearly evident. The piercing blue eyes hid the mind of a skilled martial artist. Not only in the art of weapons, as Tenchi learned from an early demonstration, unarmed combat as well.

_"I like watching her like this," _Tenchi thought to himself as he resumed his walk toward his sparring partner. _"It's like a natural state for her."_

Ranma noticed Tenchi nearing and stopped her kata. She greeted him with a warm smile.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Let me stretch and warm up first," he responded. "Wouldn't want to pull anything."

Ranma nodded and resumed her kata where she had left off. Tenchi did his own, but continued to watch Ranma as she did hers.

---------------

It had been a month since she last visited and this would only be her third time since school started.

Ranma took the opportunity to soak up the familiar scenery. The gaudy "Team Leader Clothes and Fashions" clothing on one side, the multilayer collection of shops inhabiting the building opposite and sandwiched in between was the "Yoshi Cafe' American".

It was good to be home.

Ranma strode up to the door and tried the knob, it was locked as she half expected it to be since it was still early. Fumbling with her pants pocket, she found and removed the key and used it to unlock the door and enter the restaurant.

Looking about the dining room, Ranma was filled with a sense of... nostalgia. She was home and felt like she'd been gone forever. She was about to make her way to the stairs, when a welcome figure entered the room from the kitchen wiping her hands on a hand towel.

"Ranma!" Akiko said. "Come here and let me give you a hug,"

"Granny!" Ranma answered excitedly.

After a brief but heartfelt hug, Akiko disengaged and asked, "Is this another day visit or are you staying longer?"

"It's just for the day," Ranma answered. "I have ta - er, to go to work tomorrow. So I'll be heading back around sunset."

"Oh? Too bad you can't stay longer," Akiko said slightly disappointed. "Summer break will be coming up though, how do you stand on that?"

"Well," Ranma began as she pulled out a pocket calendar to check her dates. "I'll have to work the first four weeks, every day except Mondays. I'm still planning on coming home and just riding the bus to and from work. After that the Museum will be closed for exhibit changes until about mid-August, just before school starts up again. That means I'll be free for about the last half of summer break."

Akiko smiled. "Good," she said. "It's been too quiet without you girls here."

"Where's Michiko?" Ranma asked.

"She got in late last night. She's probably still asleep..."

"Ranma!" Michiko cried dashing from the stairway.

"Sis!" Ranma answered as the two girls collided in a hug.

"How are you doing?"

"Fine how's..."

"... okay, Nekomi has the coolest motor club..."

"... you joined a club? I tried for Kendo, but..."

"... how's Tokyo U? Is it as..."

"... easy. Surprisingly so. How are you and Jiro ..."

"... great! We're getting together later at..."

Akiko stood and watched the rapid fire exchange between the two girls. She smiled as she remembered a time when she was able to talk at the same time as her friends and still able to hold the conversation.

"... pretty good at that. Tenchi can keep up and..."

"Whoa girl! Back up. Tenchi? Who's Tenchi?" Michiko asked.

Silence.

"He's just a friend that spars with me a couple of times a week," Ranma answered.

"A friend? As in boyfriend?" Michiko prodded while wagging her eyebrows.

"No, sis, it's not like that," Ranma explained with a wave of her hand. "He's just a friend that's a guy that I spar with. That's all."

"I see. Just a friend that happens to be a boy that spars with you."

"Right," Ranma reaffirmed with a nod.

"A friend that's a boy," Michiko clarified.

"Right."

"A boyfriend."

"Right."

Silence.

"Mi-chi-ko!" Ranma wailed as she grabbed the towel from Akiko's hands and chased a giggling Michiko around the dining room. The occasional snapping of a rolled up towel mixed with the shrieks of playfully yelping filled the room as Ranma swatted at the backside of her sister.

Yes, it was good to be home.

---------------------

Ranma headed off to class. It had been a week and a half since her visit home and she felt odd about it. On one hand, it was great to see her friends and family again. It made it feel like old times and it was fun catching up on what everyone was doing. On the other hand though, it felt weird. Even Michiko admitted she felt the same way during one of their gab sessions before Ranma had to leave. It was like it was good to be home, but it was good to get away from home.

_"Maybe it's all part of growing up,"_ Ranma thought as she dodged several of her classmates. _"Akiko did warn us that we would be changing as we got older."_

Ranma sighed at the thought of getting older. Not that growing old scared her, it was the unknown changes that her future held that gave her the willies.

_"I guess you don't notice growing up when it's happening to you,"_ Ranma reflected. "_Michiko's changed a bit. She's more charged up about engines and motorcycles than before and she also a bit more mischievous. She's turning more into a practical joker than ever."_

_"At least her and Jiro are getting along," _Ranma thought as she took her seat. _"I hope it all stays that way for them. They're a good match."_

--------------------

Tenchi rolled over in his half sleep. Half sleep because his roommate was snoring so loudly that it made full sleep impossible. He sighed.

_"Oh well," _Tenchi thought sleepily. _"It's still quieter than hearing Ryoko and Ayeka arguing."_

He snuggled down under the covers deeper, hoping to block out the sound of the buzz-saw laying five feet from him. He sighed again.

Popping his head from beneath the covers, Tenchi looked at the clock next to his bed.

_"It's early. It's Saturday. It's early. Sigh. Might as well -,"_ his thoughts were interrupted by a particularly loud snort from a sleeping Tetsuyuki before resuming his regularly loud snoring. _"Might as well get up."_

With that, Tenchi kicked off the covers and swung his feet over the side of the bed. Sitting on the edge, he allowed himself to get used to the relative coolness of the room after the warmness of the covers. Standing and stretching, Tenchi carefully picked his way through his shared room. He instinctively stepped over discarded drink bottles and food wrappers that his roommate left so conveniently on the floor. Tenchi found Tetsuyuki was a nice, outgoing person who worked hard and played just as hard.

He just wished that Tetsuyuki was less of a slob.

After dressing, he made his way out of the dorm. It was early, far earlier than he would've liked. The sun was barely high enough above the horizon. The light mixed with the somewhat heavy, low hanging fog lent an air of creepiness in the morning grey.

It was surreal.

Patchy islands of mist hung scattered here and there. Each patch seemed to hang at different heights, from just above the tops of the grass to about two feet of the air.

It was very quiet.

The silence was interrupted by the sounds of Tenchi's footfalls on the pavement and the occasional bird chirping somewhere, lost in the mists of the morning. Tenchi took it all in as he headed toward the direction of the cafeteria with the hopes and intentions of an early breakfast.

As he took a short cut through the rear of the group of buildings, where there was nothing but maintenance shacks and air conditioning condensers, something caught his eye.

Movement.

What looked to be a figure was dancing in the mists in the ordinary deserted spaces between the dorms. He wasn't sure at first if what he was seeing wasn't a trick of the eye caused by the unusual lighting of the morning or the patches of mist hanging here and there. But something or someone was definitely moving about.

Curious, Tenchi moved closer.

Someone, dressed in what looked to be a gi, was moving through a kata with extra ordinary skill. Tenchi concentrated on the sight, the color of the gi was hard to make out through a particularly ill-place patch of mist, but he believed the color to be blue. He moved slowly, looking for a better vantage point. The figure in the blue gi suddenly shot straight up into the air and disappeared into the low laying fog.

Tenchi froze, not knowing what to make of what he just saw.

Just when he decided to move on, the figure alighted from where it had taken off from.

_"That was amazing. I wonder if Ranma knows about this?"_ Tenchi thought to himself. _"She'll probably challenge him to a -"_

Tenchi's thoughts were cut off as the patch of obscuring mist lifted, affording him a look at the mysterious practitioner of martial arts. The first thing he noted was the red hair, done up in a ponytail and the wonderful feminine figure that was silhouetted by the pink bricks of the building. Tenchi recognized the figure.

It was Ranma.

She began moving through a complex series of katas again, in a graceful and fluid manner. What really drew Tenchi's eye was the bursts of speed that she threw into the katas sporadically. One moment she was in a crane stance, the next she literally blurred into motion, her arms and legs moving with such speed that they were impossible to see. Ranma's body became indistinct with the rapid movement and her hair seemed to take on a life of its own. When it was all over, she was back in her beginning stance.

Even across the distance between them, Tenchi could tell that she wasn't even breathing hard.

_"She's been holding back on me," _Tenchi though as he observed Ranma going through her morning workout. "_She's never that fast when she spars with me."_

Tenchi was about to call out to her when Ranma fell into a relaxed pose with one hand on her hip and faced another person that Tenchi didn't notice before.

The stranger was a man between two and three feet tall, elderly and troll-like. He was addressing Ranma while waving at her with his pipe while his other hand did some gestures that Tenchi couldn't make out. Tenchi couldn't hear what was being said, but Ranma was nodding her head and commenting on whatever was being said. Her voice carried in the air when Ranma spoke, but distance made the words unclear.

Tenchi watched as the little old man put his pipe away into the folds of his purple gi and cupped the palms his hands and held them apart about one foot. What happened next made Tenchi's hair stand on end. A faint glow pulsed back and forth, like a tiny, brilliant spark, from one tiny hand into the other and a faint outline appeared around the man.

_"A battle aura!_" Tenchi thought to himself. _"Grandfather told me of martial artist masters being able to generate one. But I've never seen one from a human before."_

As suddenly as he began, he stopped and said more words to Ranma. Ranma nodded and replied something.

_"This must be the Master that Ranma mentioned who comes by and trains and tests her every now and then,_" Tenchi concluded. "_I better not disturb their-"_

What happened next made Tenchi's hair really stand on end.

Ranma cupped her hands, mimicking the elder man's actions. The faint glow that pulsed between Ranma's hands became a ball of fire, six inches across. Tenchi could sense the power flowing back and forth. Suddenly Ranma's body was engulfed in a bright aura that made her look like she was the center of a blazing bonfire. The light from Ranma's aura scattered in the light morning haze. Tenchi felt the power of, even from this distance. It was as obvious as if he were standing next to an open furnace.

That's when he heard the troll like man speak clearly in the morning air.

"Control. Control!" he admonished the redhead. The redhead aura flickered out. "You're doing better, but you need to rein it in ..." and the rest was lost as the little man return to speaking in a normal voice.

Tenchi, forgetting about breakfast, made his way back inside his dorm before he could be spotted.

_"So powerful,"_ he though as stood in the entranceway of his dorm. He was slightly sweating from the casual display of power. _"No one - at least not a normal person - can be that powerful."_

He sat down in one of the many empty couches in the lobby and pondered this latest development. Resting an elbow on his knee and his chin on his upturned palm, he thought deeply about what he saw and felt.

_"There's no way that they could be human," _Tenchi concluded before reconsidering. _"Maybe the old man if he is a martial arts master. Grandfather often spoke of masters reaching a level of harvesting their ki for a battle aura - but that's supposed to take decades to learn! "_

He pursued that line of thought.

_"Ranma's is my age, though. She couldn't have that much of a battle aura this early in life, even if she's trained since walking. Unless..."_

Straightening up in his chair, Tenchi leaned back on the couch and stared out the glass doors into the morning.

_"Could it be like - the Wings of the Light Hawk?"_ Tenchi pondered. _"Except hers is not only around her, it was coming from her."_

He continued to stare out the glass doors, from the direction he came from. The direction where Ranma was practicing.

_"Could she be part Juraian?"_ he questioned to himself. _"Maybe I should ask her when we spar later this morning._

He shook his head,_ "No. I know I'm going to regret this, but I'm going to call Washu and see what she thinks."_

Tenchi reentered his dorm room and after a brief search, located the phone under a pile of discarded clothes by following the cable from the wall to the handset. He wanted to ask Washu before he was supposed to meet up with Ranma for their Saturday morning sparring session. He dialed the number he knew by heart and waited.

"Hello, Sasami? It's Tenchi," he said into the phone.

_"Tenchi! It's good to hear from you,_" a friendly voice said over the line. "_Would you like to speak with either Ayeka or Ryoko?"_

"No thank you, Sasami," Tenchi replied in a surprisingly cheery way. "I don't wish to speak with them. Could you please get Washu for me?"

_"Certainly,"_ Sasami replied. _"It will just a moment, Tenchi."_

"Thanks."

Tenchi waited. While doing so he absently played with the telephone cord with his fingers, twirling it around and then letting it uncoil. He kept one eye on his still sleeping roommate whose buzz saw snoring had finally diminished to the loudness of a mere handsaw.

_"Hello?"_ came a sleepy voice.

"Hello? Washu?" He began.

_"Tenchi?"_ Washu asked, waking slightly. _"Do you know what time it is? And why not use the-"_

"Yes, I know," Tenchi interrupted, not wanting to hear the sales pitch on her latest, greatest communications invention. "But I would rather use more conventional means of communicating. It's less noticeable."

_"Humph. You're no fun anymore," _Washu whined before continuing in a more serious tone. _"What can I do for you?"_

"The reason I called," Tenchi explained. "Is to ask you if you have anything that can detect Jurai energy?"

_"Of course I do," _Washu answered in a happy voice, proudly. _"I have many devices that I've designed over the years just for that purpose. Why?"._

"Why? Well there's this...," Tenchi paused and carefully considered what he was going to say next, "... person that has something similar to it and I wanted to know if it's Jurai or not."

_"A person who has powers like Jurai royalty?"_ Washu queried. _"I must meet this person. If he has such powers, it would bear investigation and-"_

"No you can't use her as a guinea pig," Tenchi said, hoping to cut any of Washu's plans off at the pass. He then mentally cursed himself as he realized his mistake.

A long pause.

_"Her?! You mean to tell me that there is a female with-"_ Washu began before being interrupted from her end this time.

_"Who is this 'her'?" _another voice, heard in the background, asked.

_"Is that Tenchi on the phone?" _a different voice asked.

_"What are you talking about?!" _

_"Is there another girl after my Tenchi?!"_

_"Your Tenchi?! You mean my..."_

"NO!" Tenchi shouted exasperatedly into the phone, trying to clarify his error. "She's just a friend. Not a girlfriend. A friend."

If anyone heard, they didn't indicate it. He knew it was going to be awhile before things settle down and a meaningful conversation took place. Realizing that, he sat on the edge of his bed and listened to his roommate snore blissfully unaware how lucky he was not to have to possessive maniacs after him. Tenchi sighed as he heard the fighting escalate on the other end of the line.

Two combatants clashed in the early morning.

The mist shrouded park echoed with the sharp reports of two bokkens clashing together. Ranma went on the offensive, pushing Tenchi back. Ranma and Tenchi moved together and apart, each thrusting their weapons in an effort to surmount the others defenses.

"Break!" Tenchi called.

The clapping of the bokkens ceased. Both combatants heaved heavily in the morning air, each releasing a fog of air from their mouths with each breath.

"Had enough?" Ranma asked in a half taunting manner.

Tenchi shook his head no. "Hungry. I didn't eat breakfast."

"That's stupid," Ranma pointed out in a playful way. "Haven't you heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day?" She then added with mirth, "Right after lunch, dinner and snacks..."

"Well, I wasn't exactly in an eating mood this morning," Tenchi snapped back, cutting her off.

Ranma was about to answer with a sharp retort herself, until she noted the expression on Tenchi's face. _"Man, something is bugging him big time,"_ she thought.

"I'm sorry," Ranma said, seeing Tenchi's mood. "I didn't think you were that upset. Wanna talk about it?"

Tenchi stood there, with bokken in hand, seemly deep in thought. He shook his head in a negative way before answering, "I have to get something to eat first."

Ranma nodded and lead Tenchi to a small coffee house with an English sign which read 'The Smell of Air'. She often wondered what the owner's meant by that, but figured it was some kind of mistranslation. It was another one of those hole-in-the wall places that seem to populate the small cubby holes on the ground floors of many buildings around the campus area. It was one of the few places she discovered that served food early in the morning. Ranma would make a beeline there when the cafeteria served something too gross to call food for breakfast.

Soon they were seated at one of the tiny tables with some steamed rice, miso soup and a small grilled fish in front of them. Tenchi picked at his rice before reaching over with his left and took a sip of his soup.

"Not bad," he commented.

Ranma didn't say anything as she let Tenchi eat his fill. As she sipped the coffee she bought for herself, she took a peek at his ki and watched as the bands of invisible power that surrounded him contract and grow, reacting to his emotional state. It didn't look like much power was being generated, but the arrangement suggested that vast amounts could be called up. After satisfying her curiosity, Ranma turned her attention to the the man sitting in front of her, brooding into a cup of coffee.

"Wanna talk about it?" she asked, setting her cup on the table, hoping to break the ice.

Tenchi sighed.

"Trouble from home?" Ranma ventured while unconsciously running a finger around the rim of her cup.

Tenchi nodded.

"The girls are at it again," Tenchi said with a touch of sadness. "There was a misunderstanding over...," Tenchi paused and looked at Ranma for second before turning his gaze out the window, "... the reason isn't important. It's just that I'm tired of them fighting over me."

"You think they would grow out of it," Ranma commented. "After all, they're your age, right? How come they fight over you like a bunch of kids?"

"I don't know," Tenchi said after careful thought. "Maybe that they came from the same place your old suitors came from."

Ranma snorted as a replied, thought for a moment, then said, "I gotta an idea, why don't we get your suitors and mine together and see what happens."

Of course, most of her old suitors were female, but there was no need for Tenchi to know that.

Tenchi broke into a grin at the thought, then said with mock seriousness, "There wouldn't be a building left standing in all of Tokyo."

Ranma only smiled and nodded in response.

"I just wish that they would stop," he sighed out.

"Have they ever asked you how you felt?" Ranma asked.

"Not really, they just assumed that they know what I want."

Ranma nodded, she could relate.

"I wish I could help you," Ranma said quietly. "I know what it's like, being caught in the middle like that."

"Well," Tenchi started, then paused to take a sip of his coffee before continuing. "Well, thanks for bending an ear. I appreciate it."

"That's what friends are for," she replied without thought, smiling brightly.

The rest of the breakfast was spent in comfortable silence as they looked out the window of the cafe, watching the morning fog lift.

-----------------------

Ranma projected her senses through the tiny aperture like Happosai taught her do with her ki and scanned the room on the other side. It always amazed her how much of the ki training could easily converted for use in her Senshi form. Satisfied that there were no other people but the ones she was expecting, she widened the nick into a long slit and opened it for her and Ami to pass through.

"Hi everybody," Ami greeted cheerfully. "Did we keep you waiting long?"

The other girls in the room, Makoto, Minako, Usagi and Rei in their own way responded in a negative way.

"Not at all, "Usagi said. "The outers couldn't make it tonight, but asked to be kept up to date on anything important."

"It'll probably be a short meeting anyway," Rei said. "It's been real quiet for the last year now."

"True," Minako agreed. "But it's still a good idea to keep in touch."

"How's school working out for you?" Ranma asked as she detransformed.

"Good," she replied with a warm smile. "I'm making some new friends. There is a girl named Kagome that grew up in a shrine like I did, so we have a lot in common."

Ranma nodded, "How about the rest of you?"

There were several shrugs and "okay's" but nothing specific.

"Well I think we should get down to business," Usagi said. "Ami, why don't you tell Ranma want we found, or didn't find."

Ami nodded and became the center of attention.

"A few weeks ago," Ami began. "Ranma ran across a guy that she thought might be another male Senshi."

"Another male Senshi?" Rei interjected. "Why?"

"His ki is weird," Ranma explained. "It's kinda like ours is, but it's a little different in some ways."

"I looked into it using the Mercury computer and couldn't find anything, "Ami said, continuing. "I got together with Usagi..." the others in the room winced in sympathy, " ... and we didn't turn up anything."

The floodgates of questions were opened.

"When did you meet..."

"How did you suspect..."

"Do you think that..."

"Is he a threat..."

"Maybe we should call Pluto in on this..."

"We better be sure about this, she's on a date..."

"How different is his..."

"How powerful is he..."

"Is he cute?"

"Is he your boyfriend?"

On that last two questions the room descended into silence as all attention was given to a certain redhead.

Ranma blink-blinked as she looked at the others in the room.

"Huh? What?" was her intelligent reply.

Usagi held up her hand to forestall any questions from the others in the room.

"The others don't know about the details Ranma, only Ami and I," she began. "We didn't want to mention too much until we were sure we found anything or not. We didn't, so Ranma could you please tell everybody everything from the beginning?"

Ranma nodded as she settled down on Rei's bed and began her tale. "Well over a month and a half - may be closer to two months ago they were having..."

She filled in the Senshi on the kendo match, the twice a week sparring sessions, running into him at the cafeteria and the karaoke club and finally doing an in-depth reading of his ki.

"... is just enough like what we have that I wondered if he could be another male scout like Tuxedo Mask. That's when I asked Ami to look into it," she finally finished.

The other girls in the room looked at Ranma, then at each other.

"Well, that explains a lot," Minako said. "But it doesn't answer what we wanted to know the most."

Ranma blink-blinked, _"I'm sure I told them everything,"_ she pondered before venturing, "Ah... like what?"

Minako sighed.

"Is he cute?" Rei asked.

"And is he your boyfriend?" Makoto piped in.

Ranma looked back and forth between Rei, Minako and Makoto.

"No!" Ranma answered exasperated. "It's not like that. He's just a friend, that's all."

"We understand, right Rei?" Makoto said.

"Of course, Makoto. Just a friend that happens to be a boy," Rei affirmed.

Ranma sighed as the hairs on the back of her head stood up.

Minako nodded, "It's all right to have a boy that's a friend."

"No problem at all," Rei confirmed. "A boy that's a friend."

Ranma sighed again and hung her head. She knew what was coming next.

The three girls looked at one another before turning their attention back to Ranma.

"A boyfriend!" they all chimed.

Ranma, with head in hand, groaned. She hated being right.

"It's. Not. Like. That," Ranma said carefully, raising her head. "He's just a guy I spar with. That's all."

"So what's he like?"

"What does he look like?"

"Is he nice?"

Ranma looked at the three friends before her and realized that they were not going to let her off the hook. Luckily for her, Usagi came to her rescue - or tried to.

"Guys, I think we're getting off topic here," Usagi said, trying to bring the conversation back to where it needed to be. "We need to figure out if Ranma's boyfriend is a male Senshi or not."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Ranma squealed. "_Squeal? I don't squeal!"_ her mind protested.

"I thought you didn't find anything?" Minako pointed out, ignoring Ranma's protests.

"When I said we couldn't find anything, it means exactly that," Ami clarified. "It doesn't mean that Ranma's boyfriend is or isn't a Senshi. It just means we couldn't turn up anything obvious in the records."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Ranma added her firm objection in.

"I don't understand," Makoto said. "I thought the Mercury computer had everything on the Moon Kingdom on it."

"Guys...," Ranma whined, trying to gain attention to her plight.

"It does," Ami answered. "It's just sometimes you have to look for something specific. If you don't know where to look, then you wouldn't find anything. In the case of Ranma's boyfriend, if he was another secret project like Sun was, it would make it more difficult. Not to mention the condition some of the archives are in..."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Ranma repeated for what, to her, seemed like the umpteenth time.

Minako, like the rest, ignored Ranma's outburst. "So what do we do?"

"I think," Usagi piped in, "Ranma should watch him closely and see what he does. This could all be a mistake and we wouldn't want to alarm an innocent person because his ki is weird."

"How often do you see your boyfriend?" Rei asked, looking directly into Ranma's eyes.

"He's not my -," Ranma started before blink-blinking at the seriousness in Rei's eyes.

"Um... let's see... we get together twice, sometimes three times a week to spar," She answered while counting the times on her fingers. "I run into him at the cafeteria about - well, about every night. On Fridays him, me, Megumi and her boyfriend, Tetsuyuki get together and hit the karaoke bar."

Silence filled the room as five girls stared at the redhead. Ranma starred back.

"What?" Ranma questioned.

The girls continued to stare.

"Do I have something on my face?" Ranma asked as she held a slender hand against her cheek.

"You see him quite a bit then?" Usagi asked with an arched eyebrow.

Ranma blink-blinked again. She lowered her hand, looked at her fingers and mentally recounted.

"Ahh... yeah. I guess...," Ranma realized what they must be thinking. "But that doesn't change the fact that he's-"

"Your boyfriend?" Minako pipe in with wagging eyebrows. The rest of the girls giggled at Ranma's predicament.

With head once again in hand, Ranma groaned.

Embarrassed for reasons she didn't fully understand, Ranma sat on Rei's bed with her head down to conceal the growing blush. After that had passed, Ranma kept her head down to hide an spreading evil smile that crept across her face. Revenge is dish best served pink.

As her three friends continued to teased her playfully - Minako going as far as singing a 'Ranma has a boyfriend' song - Ranma groped around with a free hand, until she found her weapon of choice when dealing with over romantically minded friends: a pillow.

Rei, Minako and Makoto were soon under attack by the soft, pink and fluffy 'Hello Kitty pillow of retribution' wielded by a martial arts expert. The three targets of Ranma's ire screamed, first in surprise then in horror, as they were repeatedly pummeled by the foam filled representation of the overly cute cat from hell.

They didn't stand a chance.

--------------

"So what do I do with this?" Tenchi asked.

"Well, you keep it on you when you spar," a twelve year old looking girl with spiky red hair explained. "If she is of Jurai decent or using any powers related, this will record them for later analysis."

"I don't know..." Tenchi said to Washu uncertainly. "I don't like sneaking around, why don't we just ask her?"

Washu sighed, "Because if she is not Jurai, then it would be like telling her about us," she explained patiently. "Do you really want to do that?"

Tenchi thought about the implications. "No," Tenchi answered quietly, shaking his head. "I just feel like - I'm stabbing a friend in the back."

Washu nodded, knowing how Tenchi was and how he felt.

_"Poor man," _Washu thought in a moment of clarity. _"Because of all the fighting over him, he feels like he hasn't a friend in the world."_

Tenchi had even refused to give the name of his friend to anyone, for fear that she would get an unexpected and possibly dangerous visit. Ryoko would most likely react with violence while Ayeka would probably do the same - after a suitable stewing time. Also the possibility that another of Jurai decent may be living on Earth unknown to them, intrigued her - as long as this unknown person didn't try to get close to Tenchi, of course.

With a sigh, he took the offered device.

It was a small thing really. 'Washu's pocket Jurai power and Aura Recorder with handy built in pen light and toothpick' was a cylinder of about two inches long and about a quarter inch in diameter. Tenchi weighed it in his hand and felt its smooth, machined surface. It had a lens on one end and a groove near the opposite end, like a cap.

"How can I tell if it got a reading?"

"When this end turns red," Washu explained, pointing to the grooved end.

Tenchi nodded in understanding. "How do I keep it from picking up me?"

"Don't sweat it," Washu replied. "It will record your power on a different channel that can be filtered out during analysis," she explained before cackling, "I'm such a genius!"

Tenchi shivered at the sound of Washu's laughing, knowing that it usually spelt trouble.

"I'll call you when I have something for you," Tenchi said cautiously, not wanting to be apart of another of Washu's experiments.

Washu nodded in reply and stepped through the inter-dimensional tunnel to home.

-----------------

Summer break was fast approaching. Ranma, in her anxiety, was feeling the pressure. Megumi, sensing Ranma's stress, made it her job to keep Ranma from blowing a brain cell.

"I don't know why you're so stressed," Megumi asked as Ranma hunched over her books. "You've been doing great. Your GPA is in the top ten percent and you haven't had any problems keeping it up - so why all the stress now?"

Ranma looked up from her books and exhaled sharply.

"It's all been too easy," Ranma answered. "It is not what I was expecting. I mean, I thought I would have to be struggling just to pass and I'm practically breezing through. It just doesn't add up."

"What doesn't?"

"Well, I think what's happening is that the instructors - er, professors - whatever, are lulling us into a false sense of security," Ranma tried to explain. "You know, kinda like taking it easy on an opponent - feeling them out, before springing a surprise on them and knocking them out."

Megumi studied her roommate through half lidded eyes. "Are you comparing higher education to martial arts?"

"Umm... maybe," Ranma answered sheepishly while twiddling with her fingers.

"Ranma," Megumi explained patiently. "I hate to break this to you, but school doesn't work like martial arts. It is their job to teach us. Why would they 'spring a surprise attack'?"

"Umm...," Ranma thought about that for a moment. "I'm being stupid again, aren't I?"

"Yes," Megumi answered matter of factly, Ranma pouted in response. "You're going to be fine. You just need to relax a bit and not take it so seriously."

"Oh... okay," Ranma conceded, pushing her books aside. "What do you suggest?"

"Karaoke!" Megumi answered with a smile.

-----------------

Tenchi leaned his back into Ranma's. He always was careful when doing so as to not accidentally knock her over - even after he discovered how strong she really was.

"That was an interesting move," he commented with a chuckle. He watched the sunlight dance off the waters of one of the small ponds. He also rubbed the spot on the top of his head where Ranma tagged him.

"I didn't mean to," said an abashed Ranma. "It was an accident."

Tenchi shook his head and chuckled louder at Ranma's obvious embarrassment.

"Hey!" Ranma said indignantly. "I said it was an accident!"

"I know," Tenchi said mirthfully. "It was just the look on your face."

"Feh," Ranma countered. "The look on your face was priceless. I thought your nose was going to explode and you'd bleed all over the place or something."

Tenchi chuckled at Ranma's observation.

"Humph," Ranma huffed while crossing her arms. "Next time, I'll just keep you waiting."

"At least next time you'll have a bra on," Tenchi quipped.

Ranma sighed, putting her head in hand. It just wasn't her day.

She was running late for her sparring match with Tenchi, so she cut corners dressing out. Back at her dorm room, she threw off her street clothes and shoved them into her gym bag and threw on her gi. In an effort to save what probably amounted to two seconds of time, she had foregone her sports bra. That turned out to be not such a good idea.

Tenchi got lucky during the spar and managed to snag the flap of her gi with the tip of his bokken. This dislodged the front and pull the material out of the confining belt that Ranma didn't secure properly in her haste. This resulted in the top part of Ranma's gi coming undone and completely opening. The gi was intact, just opened in front exposing Ranma's charms to the world and unintentionally flashing Tenchi.

The results were frozen bugged eye Tenchi, who was promptly knocked on the top of his head by a bokken by one very embarrassed Ranma.

"Want to hit the baths?" Tenchi asked, changing the subject to more comfortable ones.

"Yeah. That sound great," Ranma said, then commented with a smile, "It's kinda early though, how about we pick up some Pocky on the way - I could use a little snack."

Tenchi laughed and nodded as he stood, "You and your stomach. Okay, sounds good. My treat."

Ranma smiled at that and took the offered hand. She allowed herself to be pulled up to her feet.

"Well, thanks for not thinking I'm some kind of pervert or something," Ranma said as she rested her bokken on her shoulder.

"Who said I didn't?" Tenchi quipped.

"W - what?" Ranma stammered with eyes bugging.

Tenchi laughed at Ranma's reaction.

"I'm joking!" he said. "Ranma, you're too easy to tease sometimes."

Ranma pouted beautifully, before narrowing her eyes. "Okay mister, just for that - TWO boxes of Pocky - the almond crush ones, too."

Tenchi looked at the little redhead's cute, pouty face with the fire for nut covered chocolate treats burning in her eyes.

Tenchi smiled and with a nod, relented, "Okay."

Ranma returned the smile with a brilliant one - her day just got better.

---------

_"B,"_ Ranma thought as she filled in the bubble with what she hoped was the correct answer. Not that she had any doubts that is was the right answer, it was just that while waiting for the course work to get hard, the end of the semester crept upon her. She was sure she'd overlooked something, but couldn't find anything. With a shrug, Ranma continued to go over the questions and filled the appropriate bubbles in.

_"D," _was the answer to the next question.

The particular sound of 'stritching' of the pencils on paper filled the room as Ranma worked though the problems.

_"Man this is easy,"_ she thought. _"I thought these tests were going to be harder than this."_

_"B,"_ Ranma marked. _"I guess all that studying paid off. I wonder how Megumi's doing."_

_"A,"_ Ranma filled in confidently. _"I'll be finished in no time."_

Ranma peeked at the clock on the wall.

_"I wonder if Tenchi will finish his just as quickly," _She wondered as she worked yet another problem. _"We could get together and have an early spar."_

_"A. Then again,"_ Ranma recalled. _"He did say he had some things to do this afternoon."_

Ranma sighed, turning her full attention back to the task at hand.

----------------

Ranma descended from the stage amid clapping and hooting. It was a good set. She sang 'Hoshi' solo and 'Daichi No La-li-La' as a duet with Megumi and she needed another sip of her Orange Julius to soothe her throat. It was another crowded Friday night and the girls decided to go early to get a good table and relax before the club filled up. Knowing that this would be the last time until after summer break, they decided to make a late night of it. Making her way through mob, back toward where Megumi was seated, Ranma spotted two familiar men enter through the front door.

"Hey! Tenchi! Tetsuyuki!" Ranma called over to them with a beckoning wave.

"Hey Ranma. Where's Megumi?" Tetsuyuki asked while he gave Ranma the once over.

"She's over in our usual spot," Ranma answered ignoring the elevator eyes that he was giving her. "She's probably sung out and ready to dance."

"Gotcha," he said as he made his way over to their table. Ranma stared after him as he worked his way through the crowd.

"You okay?" Tenchi asked.

"Yeah. I just don't know about him. He kinda creeps me out," Ranma replied. "Then again, most of the guy's I've met are creeps."

Tenchi blink-blinked at her. Ranma caught the look.

"Hey don't worry. You don't count."

Tenchi blink-blinked again, before saying in a mock hurt tone, "I don't count?"

"Nah, you're a guy, but you're not a 'guy' guy. Get it?"

Tenchi just shook his head in confusion as Ranma, forgetting getting something to drink, pulled him toward the dance floor.

---------------

Ranma and Tenchi were once again sitting back to back after an intense workout. Very intense. Since this was going to be their last spar before summer break, they decided to take the match to another level. Ranma was pressed so hard that she inadvertently tapped into her ki and by extension, her Senshi power. She quickly suppressed the Senshi part and used her ki.

_"Tenchi also tapped into whatever he has,"_ she thought._ "I saw his - whatever - flare a few times during our match."_

In droplets, sweat trickled down her cheeks, collecting on her chin before dripping down onto her heaving chest. It was a good workout, the last one before leaving for their respective homes.

The sun was still relatively high in the summer sky as the two continued to sit and catch their breaths.

_"I'm going to miss this," _Ranma thought absently as she watched the wind play with the leaves in the trees. _"I hope we can keep doing this after we get back from break."_

A rock was digging into her rear, so Ranma shifted into a more comfortable position. Tenchi shifted without thought to accommodate her movement. She settle back against his back and returned to watching the leaves dance.

The two sat in silence for an indeterminate time.

"Tenchi?" Ranma asked softly.

"Yes Ranma?"

"I'm going to miss sparring with you," she said. "I just thought you ought'ta know. Outside of you and the Master, no one else gives me a decent workout."

"I been enjoying it myself," Tenchi admitted. "We can keep doing this after we get back from break."

Ranma smiled, "I was thinking the same thing."

Tenchi nodded.

"I would like to challenge your grandfather," Ranma stated. "Do you think he would mind?"

Tenchi was still for a moment as he considered the question.

"I don't see why not," he answered with a shrug. "As far as I know, we'll be there all summer. Call before you come though."

Ranma nodded, "Deal. Will you have any problems with... you know."

Tenchi, his flagging optimism returning over the last three months, answered, "I don't think so. You're just a friend so they shouldn't be any problem."

"Shouldn't?"

"Well," Tenchi thought deeper. "On second thought-"

He fell into silence once again as he considered Ranma's question.

"No," he finally said. "I'm not going to let other people dictate who I call friend or not. If you want, you are welcome to visit anytime. I'm sure my grandfather would more than welcome your challenge."

Ranma liked the sound of that.

"If the girls try to make something more out of it," Tenchi added. "They will have to face me and my grandfather."

"Ah... I don't want to cause you any problems..." Ranma said softly.

"You're not the problem," Tenchi affirmed. "It's their problem. Don't worry about it."

Ranma wasn't so sure anymore, but relented, "Okay, if you say so." Then thought "_But hey, were just friends. It's not like I'm out to marry him or anything."_

-------------

Ranma gathered what little in the way of possessions she had accumulated and looked about her dorm room. She was leaving most of her books, not wanting to carry the extra weight - at least the ones she hadn't sold back to the bookstore. Summer break had arrived and for the most part she'd be working half of it and have the other half free.

_"I'll be back in a couple of months anyway,"_ she thought as she shouldered her pack. Knowing that she had to come back near here to work, she mentally added, _"Well in this room."_

Looking at her roommate's side of the room, she noted that Megumi left quite a bit of stuff behind, but that was all right since she was coming back also. She had left right after finals for the trek home. Ranma smiled, in all the time they lived together, studied and they went out, it wasn't until the last month of school that she bothered to ask where Megumi was from. Turned out she came from the opposite side of the island, a city called Himi. One hundred and eighty miles west - as the crow flies.

Ranma opened the door, looked one last time to be sure everything was in place before exiting the room. Locking the door behind her she walked down the hall to the stairway.

Walking through the campus, she smiled at seeing Ami waiting for her. They had planned to take the bus together.

"Hello Ranma," Ami called picking up her suitcase from where it was resting.

"Hey Ami. Ready to go?" Ranma asked as she walked up to her.

Ami nodded as both girls made their way to the bus stop.

"Anything new on your suspected Senshi?" Ami asked as they walked.

"Nah, er,... No," Ranma replied. "I'm beginning to think it was a false alarm. His ki is weird, but outside of a few flare ups during our last sparring match, I haven't really seen him do anything with it."

"So what do you think?"

"Don't know," Ranma answered. "I don't think he is a threat. He's a nice guy."

Ami nodded. "I'll do some more research over the summer anyway. I just thought of a few more approaches to search with. If nothing else, I may find some interesting history to read. You want to get together and help?"

"Okay, but it'll have to be in the evening after I get home from work."

The girls approached the bus stop and the roar of a passing train from the station filled the environment. It was loud enough that Ranma though she actually felt the air pressure from the train's passage.

"I don't recalling it being that loud," commented Ami. "Then again, I never come this way at this time of day."

Ranma nodded in agreement as the pair made it to their stop.

"Are you going back to work at your family's restaurant this summer?" Ami asked.

Ranma shook her head. "No," she said. "I'll be coming back here everyday to work". She unshouldered her backpack before continuing, "I hope I can at least make it home in time to help with clean up."

"Right... Oh! That's our bus!" Ami exclaimed as said bus pulled into the stop.

Picking up their luggage, boarding and finding seats on the bus, the two girls resumed their talk.

"What's else are you going to do this summer?" Ami asked.

"Well, like I said, I hope to get home in time to help with the clean up. That way Michiko and I can have time to get together. She wants to show me some stuff her and her boyfriend worked on."

"Speaking of boyfriends," Ami began, "about your friend again?"

"He's doing alright. He left this morning," Ranma answered, grateful that Ami didn't call Tenchi her boyfriend. "He's looking foreword to spending time at home. He's hoping to surprise his grandfather when they spar."

"Going to miss him?"

"Yeah, I guess" Ranma admitted. "He's pretty good in a match and not a bad dancer to boot."

Ami raised a eyebrow.

"It's not like that," Ranma insisted while making warding gestures. "His roommate and mine have been getting us together 'accidentally' all semester. It took Tenchi and I awhile to figure it out, but it was no coincidence that we kept running into each other at the club, cafeteria and other places."

"Ahh - matchmakers," Ami commented.

"Yup, and real busy bodies about it too," Ranma said with a nod. "But that's okay. It's not like Tenchi and I are involved in 'that way'. We just mainly spar and talk."

"Talk? About what?" Ami asked.

"You know, school, life, stuff," Ranma listed.

Ami nodded in reply.

The rest of the trip home on the bus was filled with nothing but small talk, tentative plans for the summer and hopes for the next semester.

--------------

--------------

Notes:

Well here yet is another chapter. As some of you can tell, I got this one out rather fast. I promise you this: it was an accident.

This was one was originally part of the last chapter. While writing, it got too big for me to handle, so I broke it into two separate chapters. I had done this in the past with other chapters, the ones covering the Battle of Juuban for example. That one I had to break into three to deal with it.

To those writers out there who can consistently write long chapters, with word counts of 10 to 15K or more without getting freaky: I tip my hat and salute you.

I'm still amazed how much space this takes up. When I began the first back story, I envisioned ten chapters of about five thousand words each...

... you all can stop laughing now.

As always, I would like to thank all of those who took the time to leave reviews. I said it once, I'll say it again: I do appreciate it.

To Lord-Khyron1: You are right, I misspelled the character's name. Though I got the spelling off the net, I should have took the time to double checked it against the manga. I wish I could claim a good reason for not walking the fifteen feet upstairs to do that, but there is none except laziness on my part.

And to those who noticed: Yep, I do have quite a bit of characters from all over doing 'cameos' or 'guest staring' roles showing up in my fic. I'm surprised no one has caught on to Ranma's roommate yet. When I was looking for a name for her... well, let's just say I thought it was perfect.

Thanks for reading.


	23. University Part 4

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

---------------------

---------------------

University Part 4

---------------------

---------------------

Ranma smiled as she took the entrance fees from the middle aged couple. Giving them the option of waiting for a tour or moving amongst the exhibits on their own, they chose the later. Ranma leaned back into the uncomfortable chair and stretched her tried muscles. Though she was very glad to have this job, sometimes when it was slow, like today, she wished she could be anywhere but there.

_"The worst of it is that Happosai took off for the summer too,"_ she thought somewhat gloomily. _"Without him or Tenchi to spar with, this summer is just going to... to suck."_

Deciding that the front entranceway needed to be swept for the sixth time today, Ranma headed off to do the deed. She sighed. Retrieving the broom from its place, she began the mindless task.

Sweep.

Sweep.

Sweep.

_"I could be home, helping out around the restaurant or learning some long lost martial arts in some temple somewhere or I could visit Tenchi and spar with his grandfather or..."_ Ranma continued with her mental list of 'things she could be doing instead of being bored to death here' as she continued to tidy up. She did this every time it got slow. She continued to sweep the few leaves and debris that escaped the five other cleanings.

_"Tenchi,"_ she thought. _"I wonder that's up with his aura?"_

Sweep.

Sweep.

Sweep.

_"Maybe it's a hereditary trait,_" she pondered. _"Mine and the other Senshi's auras go straight to the soul. In comparison, Tenchi's is more - superficial."_

Sweep.

Sweep.

Sweep.

_"His power isn't superficial, though,"_ she considered while moving to the other end of entranceway. "_It's kinda interesting how his power flows around him like that."_

Sweep.

Sweep.

Sweep.

_"I wonder if Ami found anything? I wonder what would happen if Tenchi turned out to be another Scout? Should we tell him?"_

Sweep.

Sweep.

Sweep.

_"Speaking of which, I never got Tenchi's phone number before he left for home," _Ranma lamented.

Sweep.

Sweep.

Sweep.

_"Oh well," _she thought brightly. _"He did say that he was going to be home all summer and to come by anytime. I hope he doesn't mind when I show up."_

Sweep.

Sweep.

Sweep.

Collecting what little she had, she emptied the dust pan with a shake.

_"I'm going to go nuts unless I find something to do,"_ Ranma thought with desperation. _"Maybe Mrs. Katsuragi has something for me to do that will keep me near the front."_

Putting the broom and dust pan away, Ranma went on her trek to find something to do.

----------------

Elsewhere in Japan, a pigtailed young man was going through his bags of clothes, sorting them. He had been home for several weeks and hadn't gotten around to unpacking yet. He had made some lame excuses not to, like he would be going back to school soon and so on. But the truth was that he had an attack of the lazies and didn't want to bother with it.

Today he was determined to not be lazy about it and get the chore out of the way.

_"I don't remember taking this much stuff," _he mused as he laid some shirts down on the mats on the floor. _"Then again, not really having to haul it on a train or anything does help."_

He had used the inter-dimensional door to travel back to Okayama after telling his roommate and Ranma that he had to take a late train home. The sparring he and Ranma did together paid off as he was able to give his grandfather a run for his money. A smile broadened as he recalled the surprised look on his grandfather's face when he was nearly disarmed at his hands.

He paused and smiled a bit thinking of Ranma.

_"It's not just the sparring," _he thought. _"I miss our talks."_

Tenchi sighed as he continued to sort through his clothes.

_"I wonder if she thinks of me?" _he mused as he picked up his gi. He frowned. _"What's this?"_

Patting down his gi, he felt something hard inside the cloth. Running his his fingers and isolating where it was, he reached into a small pocket that was on the interior of the gi. He removed a small cylindrical object.

_"What's th - oh yeah! I remember,"_ Tenchi realized as he held up the device that Washu gave him when he was back in school. _"I forgot all about this."_

He studied the device in his hands and noticed that the grooved end was red.

_"I better get this to Washu or I'll never hear the end of it,"_ he thought. _"Come to think of it, I'm surprised she hadn't said anything."_

He shrugged his shoulders, _"Well, she's had been busy with her experiments lately." _Tenchi shuddered at that thought._ "She probably forgot like I did."_

Tenchi sighed and pocketed the recording device.

---------------

"Whatcha wanna do?" Ranma asked.

"Don't know," Michiko replied. "I was expecting to spend a lot of my evenings working at the restaurant. I didn't count on Granny hiring enough help to cover all shifts."

"Me either," Ranma sighed. "You know, there is such a thing as having too much time on your hands."

"Let's head over to the Crown Arcade and see if any of the old crew is hanging out," suggested Michiko. "At the very least we could get some ice cream or something."

"You know," Ranma said as she walked beside her sister, "in all the time I've lived here, I don't know if there is a karaoke bar around here or not."

"You and karaoke. You're as bad as Uncle Shoji," Michiko said while rolling her eyes. "Let's try the arcade first. Eat ice cream and play a few games."

Ranma nodded, "Sounds like a plan."

"There'll be some excitement next week," Michiko hinted.

"Oh?"

"Jiro is bringing up my project front the Motor Club. I think you'll be impressed."

"Oh? Any hints?" Ranma prodded as they neared the Crown Arcade.

"Nope," Michiko answered with a smile. "You'll have to wait."

Entering the arcade, both girls made a beeline for the frozen treats.

----------------

Leading the tour, Ranma showed the small crowd into the courtyard of the museum and began telling its history. The crowd that was visiting this day were mostly a mixed bunch of foreigners from a tour group. Ranma found it amusing that each person had their ever-present camera hanging from their necks. Working at the museum, Ranma was exposed to a wide assortment of people outside the usual Japanese that paid visits. She was fascinated by the wide variety of colors and shapes people came in.

It also meant that she had to give her speech in English.

"The Folk Crafts Museum was founded by Muneyoshi Yanagi in 1936," Ranma began. "It was founded on the hopes of preserving common crafts that use to be handmade and were being pushed aside by the growth of industrialism. Yanagi believed that the human touch and spirit that was found in everyday wares was being lost as they were replaced by mass produced products. He feared that the often overlooked art of everyday handmade items was would be lost forever."

Many of the people nodded as they looked around the grounds.

"The collection has over one hundred seventy thousand objects made by craftsmen" Ranma continued as she waved her hand in a sweeping gesture to the buildings surrounding them." We have everything from pottery, textiles and paintings."

A general mummer went though the crowd, some clicking pictures of the building and grounds.

"Before we enter the first exhibit, are there any questions?" Ranma asked politely.

A woman that was about half a head taller than Ranma with wavy brown hair wearing a very loud shirt raised her hand.

"Yes," Ranma called on her, feeling more like a school teacher than a guide.

"Yes," she began in English with a heavy accent that Ranma couldn't fathom. "Y'all got any exhibits on how the stuff was made? Ya, know. Like how the cloth was made?"

Ranma remained silent as her brain worked on the translation.

"Um... yes," Ranma began, taking a stab at what was asked. "We have many examples of hand weaved cloth in our collection."

"Yah, I know that," the woman said patiently. "But what I'm askin' is if you have a loom or a watchamicallit showin' how the stuff was made."

Ranma's mind wrapped around the words she knew and tried to figure out the meaning of the words she didn't from the connotations.

"I'm very sorry," Ranma admitted with a slight bow. "We do not have a 'watchamicallit'. We do have a loom in the textiles display, however."

The woman smiled as some of the others chuckled. "That's alright, you see one watchamicallit, you've seen them all."

Ranma raised an eyebrow and mentally scratched her head trying to understand the humor. As good as her English was, Ranma many times had difficultly dealing with native English speakers. It's like they have a different word for everything.

Keeping her professional smile on her face, she asked, "Are there anymore questions?"

Receiving the universal signal for no, the shaking of heads, Ranma beckoned the group to follow her into the first exhibit hall. She made it a point to remember to beckon them using the western method, not the Japanese, so they wouldn't think she was waving 'bye' to them.

"In this room," she lectured, "we have a collection of lacquer ware..."

---------------

"You built this?" Ranma asked incredulously.

"Yep, Isn't cool?" Michiko gushed.

"By yourself?"

"I did the design and most of the motor work," Michiko explained as she mounted the motorbike. "Jiro constructed the frame with the help of Keiichi and Tamiya. Jiro, Keiichi and Megumi did the suspension."

The names that Michiko listed meant nothing to Ranma, with the exception of one, the others she assumed were part of the motor club.

"Megumi?" Ranma asked. "That's the same name as my roommate."

"Megumi is Keiichi's younger sister," Michiko explained. "Well, what do you think?"

The bike was a work of art.

It looked like a sculpture than anything Ranma had seen on the streets of Juuban. The frame was a sweeping, flowing metal tube-like thing with no sharp edges. It was shaped like a A-frame or two prong fork that curved from junction of the front forks to where it spread for the rear wheel. The engine rested between the spread the the frame, slightly further back than she was used to seeing in other motorcycles. Having the motor pushed back made room for the radiator in the front. Though Ranma didn't recognize what she was looking at, this was a water cooled engine. She did notice a lack of a drive chain, instead there was a shaft about three quarters of an inch thick joining the motor and wheel together. It was painted an flat orange with glossy red strip down the middle.

"Wow," Ranma commented. "You and your club basically built this?"

Michiko nodded. "I laid it out and everyone pitched in. To save money, we used a lot of off the shelf stuff, but we modified them and custom built the frame to be as light in weight and strong as possible."

"Ah...," Ranma said as she studied Michiko's handy work. "Isn't there suppose to be a gas tank somewhere?"

"Oh, there is," Michiko answered proudly. She motioned to a cap that was situated on the widest part of the frame, just ahead of where Michiko was sitting. Ranma missed it because it was on the other side from where she was standing.

"It's built into the frame," Michiko explained. "I used the open spaces created by this part of the frame for the tank."

"Wow," was the only word Ranma could think of to describe what she saw.

"Wanna go for a ride?" Michiko asked.

"Well... I don't - ," Ranma started to answer before something struck her. "Hey, when did you get a license to drive?"

"At school silly. C'mon, I'll go easy on you," Michiko added with a sparkling smile while handing Ranma a helmet.

"Well, okay. No funny stuff - understand?" Ranma said hesitantly while slipping the orange and red striped helmet over her head.

"Right," Michiko said while slipping on her own, matching helmet. "No funny stuff. Don't forget to adjust the strap," she said while motioning to her chin, "the helmet won't do any good if it comes off."

Ranma fumbled with the unfamiliar buckle and strap. After a few seconds Michiko waved Ranma over and did it for her.

Glad that she was wearing pants that day, Ranma clambered on board and scooted up behind her sister.

"Ready?" Michiko asked. Ranma nodded.

Michiko hit the electric start and the engine sprung to life. Ranma was disappointed. She was expecting a huge, deafening racket, teeth jarring vibration and clouds of exhaust. Instead she got a almost smooth purr, a gentle throbbing and no smoke from the tailpipe. It wasn't what she was expecting.

_"This might not be too bad...,"_ Ranma thought.

"Hang on," Michiko warned gleefully...

_"...or not."_

... and they were off.

Akiko was busy sweeping the front of her restaurant. It was nice to have the girls home, even for a little while.

_"It won't be long before they're gone," _she thought as she swept up. "_Michiko spends more time with her boyfriend than at home. But that is to be expected. Too bad they can't stay children a little longer."_

Pausing from her chore, she took in the neighborhood.

_"It won't be long before both girls will have families of their own," _she thought wistfully. _"And that's the way it's supposed to be."_

She sighed and was about to resume her work when a sound caught her attention. She cocked her head one side to the other, trying to determine the direction of the noise. It was a long continuous, low pitched sound that almost sounded like...

... a motorcycle zoomed up with two people on it, obviously females. Though the bike was not really speeding, it was moving at a good clip just under what would draw attention from the law. It slowed as it approached the front of the restaurant and the driver stopped the bike with a touch of a fishtail, leaving a slight mark upon the road. The driver turned off the motor and sat up, the rider was still clinging to her.

The driver removed her helmet.

"Hi Granny!" Michiko said cheerily.

"Michiko!" Akiko said in surprise. "So this is what you brought home the other day. Is this your project?"

Michiko nodded enthusiastically. "Yes. I just got through taking Ranma for a spin. Right Ranma?"

There was no response form the still clinging passenger.

Michiko Blink-blinked. "Ranma?"

A highly spaced out redhead was still clinging to Michiko's body as Michiko tried to turn and face her.

"Ranma?" Michiko asked with concern.

"W... w... wheelies. So many w... w... wheelies," the near cationic redhead whimpered, still clinging to her sister.

"Ah... sorry about that," Michiko said embarrassingly, turning red in the face. "I got carried away."

"Carried away?" Ranma asked shaking her head like a dog, coming to senses a little. "You call doing wheelies while I'm clinging on for dear life, 'carried away'?"

"Well, hee... hee...," Michiko began looking between her ragged looking sister and the now stern faced grandmother.

"Oops?"

---------------

Ranma finished dusting the table down and looked about the entryway. The floor was swept and mopped, the room was dusted and the pamphlets on the museum were tidied up into neat stacks.

_"I bet this room's never been cleaner," _she thought as she put the cleaning supplies away. She turned and gave the room one last look over for anything she missed. This would be the last time she would see this place for a month. The Folk Crafts Museum was shutting down for a time to change exhibits before reopening.

Ranma was not needed for the exhibit changes. The arrangement of the displays and the items contained in them were the sole job of the curators and the full-time staff. The moving, lifting and arranging the heavy display cases was considered 'men's work' and that meant that Ranma was excluded from that as well.

Ranma had to bite back a snort on that last one, but she also welcomed the time off.

Picking up the trash can to empty on her way out, she sought out her supervisor.

Ranma found Mrs. Katsuragi speaking with Mr. Mikage in the courtyard. She waited a respectful distance until the conversation was finished before approaching her boss. Ranma approached as Mr. Mikage headed off in the direction of his office.

Ranma stopped and bowed.

"I have finished the clean up, Mrs. Katsuragi " Ranma informed. "Is there anything else you need me to do?"

Mrs. Katsuragi eyed Ranma over the clipboard she had been carrying and finished writing something before giving attention to the redhead.

"Very good" Mrs. Katsuragi stated simply. "Did you remember to empty the trash?"

"Yes ma'am" Ranma replied politely. "I did that just before reporting."

Mrs. Katsuragi nodded and made further notations on the clipboard.

"Very good" she said with a smile. "Well Miss Yonai, I guess this is the last we'll see of you for a month. You do have the date we need you back, do you?"

"Yes ma'am, I wrote it down when you told me," Ranma said as she bowed slightly. "I will be here."

"Have a good vacation," Mrs. Katsuragi said as her smiled broadened. "You have been a good worker, Miss Yonai. I look forward to seeing you back."

"Thank you Mrs. Katsuragi," Ranma acknowledged while deepening her bow. "I look foreword to returning."

Mrs. Katsuragi returned Ranma's deep bow with one half as deep before dismissing Ranma for the remainder of the summer.

---------------------

Ami and Ranma were hunched over the Mercury computer, browsing through the Lunar Archives.

"Where should we start?" Ranma asked her short haired friend.

"Let's start with the project files for the Senshi and see if that leads us anywhere," Ami replied.

Quickly paging through a familiar route, the two girls were soon had the said files upon the screen. Skimming the information, Ami shook her head slightly. She had been through these files too often to overlook anything.

"There's nothing here that really helpful. Try and think of a new way to search," Ami suggested to Ranma.

Ranma thought a few moments before piping up, "Who created us?"

Ami raised and eyebrow.

"I mean, er - look someone had to be like - I don't know chief scientist in charge or something," Ranma said, grasping for words.

Ami's eyes widened. "Of course," she agreed. "I never thought about that before because those files contained lots of information and terminology that I couldn't understand and that was never defined."

"What was the term used again? It wasn't scientist - it was something else," Ranma asked, trying to remember.

"Techno-mages," Ami stated.

"Right," Ranma said with a snap of her fingers. "Let's see if the listing for the Techno-mages has anything."

Ami re-paged through the files and concentrated on the listings for the important Techno-mages. She scribbled a few things on a pad that Ranma couldn't decipher.

_"She is going to be a doctor, all right,_" Ranma thought. _"I can't read her handwriting to save my life."_

"Is there anything I can do?" Ranma asked.

"Ummm," Ami began distractedly before focusing on her guest. "Not really. It's just going to take time to sort through this."

"Sort? What are you going to sort?" Ranma questioned, her curiosity roused.

"There are at least two thousand two hundred techno-mages listed," Ami explained as her fingers danced over the keyboard. "I'm going to do a sort of who was working on what project. By doing that I can narrow the list down. Then search for other projects that the common Techno-mages were on."

"I see," Ranma realized. "If they were involved in all of the Senshi projects, then it would make sense if they were in on, er - well, another Senshi project."

"Exactly," Ami confirmed. "I just hope the sorted list isn't too long."

The two girls waited for what seemed to Ranma a long while. Ranma was about to give up when the screen flashed a few time and a list of about thirty names came up.

"A-ha!" Ami cried triumphantly. "We successfully narrowed two thousand two hundred and seventeen names down to twenty-six."

"So - now what?" Ranma asked.

"Well, we'll take the files for you" Ami explained the process. "I had Usagi copy and paste a lot of the information from your files into text files so I could have access to them. I'll just find the delineated text file for the Techno-mages that worked on your creation. Then I can then turn that into a database file and use that to cross reference within the sorted file and see if it narrows it down even more."

"How long will that take?" Ranma asked, totally lost. _"This is probably going to take weeks," _she thought.

"About fifteen minutes, maybe thirty," Ami answered as she quickly maneuvered through the files, menus and databases that she had created.

Ranma watched the display of skill and familiarity that Ami displayed as she worked away on the files. After what seemed like five minutes of furious keyboard pounding, Ami paused and dramatically hit a single key with her index finger.

The computers screen went blank, flashed a few times and then went blank again. Ranma thought maybe the computer broke and was about to suggest that when the screen sprang into life.

From a list of about thirty names, only seven were displayed.

"Okay," Ranma ventured, "Let me guess, you're going to take this list and do a search of the archives and find out what other projects these seven worked on outside of the creation of the Senshi."

"Right," Ami confirmed as she was loading the names into the parameters of the search window. "This part is going to take a while since the archives are so huge and some of it is poorly organized, especially the later ones."

"How long?" Ranma asked.

"Let's see," Ami replied as she hit a button with her index finger again. "The time to complete the search and sort is about... two hours, eight minutes."

"And then what?" Ranma asked.

"We read," Ami replied.

-----------------

The girls chatted insistently, talking about their schools, boys, and plans that they had for vacation. Ranma sat among her friends at the Crown Arcade, chatting about the latest kendo moves she learned to a interested Makoto.

Hotaru was there sitting next to Minako, who was next to Ami. Hitomo and Tamami were siting across from Ranma with Michiko sandwiched between them. They were grilling her on her relationship with Jiro.

"So, what are you going to do this summer?" Makoto asked in between Ranma descriptions of disarming your opponent.

"I don't know," Ranma answered after a little thought. "I was planning on helping out at the restaurant, but that didn't pan out. Michiko and I were doing stuff, but Jiro got back and she's spending more time with him now."

At that point, the other girls hammered Michiko with all sorts of questions on her relationship with Jiro.

"Maybe you need to find a boyfriend," Michiko said, once the girls gave her a break. "How about that boy you met at school? Why haven't you seen him?"

"He lives way over in Okayama," Ranma replied. "I was planning on visiting him - I don't know."

"Do you miss him?" Hitomo piped up from the sundae she was eating as the other girls quieted down to hear Ranma's reply.

"Yeah, I guess I do. He was great to spar with."

"That's all you did? Ami said that you talked a lot," Hotaru said with bright, curious eyes.

"Well...," the girls sitting round the table leaned forward in interest. "We... talked... a bit."

"Just talked?" Tamami inquired. "What about?"

"Stuff," Ranma replied.

"What kind of stuff?" Tamami pressed.

"You know stuff. Martial arts, school, life... you know - stuff."

"You miss him, don't cha?" Hitomo asked.

"Yeah, I guess I do," Ranma admitted. "He was great in a match and to talk with and dance and...," Ranma blinked out of her verbal thoughts to see the girls around the table looking at her.

She knew that look.

"It's not like that!" Ranma quickly interjected. "We're just friends. That's all."

"Suuure Ranma, we understand," Makoto said teasingly.

Minako started humming the 'Ranma's gotta boyfriend' tune. Hotaru looked back and forth between Minako and Ranma. The other girls began to giggled in, what Ranma felt at the moment, an annoying way.

Ranma sat and pouted. Without access to the 'Hello Kitty Pillow of Retribution', she didn't have any other recourse.

-------------

Ranma sat on her favorite rock and pondered the Earth as it hung in the sky.

When she wasn't training, it was a good place to think.

She had just returned from the 'firing range', working on reducing the size of her high end attacks, with great success. Happosai's training was paying off, instead of blowing an asteroid into it's component atoms, she garnered enough control to burn a neat, half inch hole through the center. Considering how much power she had to control and focus, the difficultly could not be understated.

It had been a good training exercise.

Ranma sighed as she sat and literally stared off into space.

Summer was really starting to bum her out.

She sighed, "_First it was great being home, then Granny didn't need Michiko or me to help out, then all our friends started going off somewhere for their family vacations."_

Shifting to a slightly more comfortable position, she continued her introspection. _"Michiko and I hung out together. That was fun until Jiro got back from wherever and now she's gone with him all the time."_

Ranma pushed off the feeling of loneliness that threatened to mug her.

_"Happoai's gone for the summer, Tenchi's gone. I have no one to spar with and I've about learned what I can from the Anything Goes library."_

She stood upon her rock and stretched.

"Well, I leave in a few days for my training trip," Ranma said to herself. "It'll be fun to hit the road for a little while."

-------------

Washu removed the 'Pocket Jurai Power and Aura Recorder with Handy Built-in Pen Light and Toothpick' that Tenchi returned to her from her pocket and placed it carefully onto a three prong receptacle atop of a sculpture-like device of light and glass. The glow emitting from the reader flared slightly brighter before returning to its original brightness as it began to pulse in rhythmic manner.

After making sure the recorder was firmly secure in the reader, Washu crossed the vast room filled that was her lab and seated herself onto a levitating chair with one leg tucked underneath the other. She brought the square keyboard to life and began typing away. Several translucent screens that were floating unsupported in midair just behind where the keyboard was stationed, came to life and displayed information of pictures and columns of text that flashed by too fast for any ordinary person to read.

Washu's brow furrowed.

_"This is odd,"_ she thought. _"There's definitely two spikes here, but they're both connected. The first and longer signature is defiantly ki. The second one is more powerful and it was quickly shielded or suppressed."_

Fingers once again danced over the glass-like keyboard which responded in a array of lights and sounds.

_"The non-ki spike was only readable for one ten-thousandths of a second," _she thought with an increasing furrowed brow. _"If I can slow the recorder and isolate the channel, I should be able to see what this energy looks like."_

Making a few minor adjustments, Washu smiled while thinking, "_If it wasn't for the modified Venkman, Stantz and Spengler detector I refined and built into the recorder, I wouldn't have the readings I have."_

She was glad for her subscription of 'Paranormal Quarterly' that had an article detailing the modifications written by a Dr. Yachi.

Watching the changing patterns of the screens, Washu eyes narrowed in concentration. Slowing the recorder, isolating the channel and amplifying what little was detected in the brief instant the energy spike existed, took Washu forty more minutes of work. The end result was a waveform, looking like a doughnut made up of bands of various diameters, displayed on one of the larger of the floating screens. Several of the bands that made up the waveform crossed over the center 'hole' part of the doughnut shape and created an infinity loop. The arrangement was unique.

But not too unique.

_"I've seen this before, somewhere,"_ Washu thought as she studied the intricate structure of the waveform. _"But where have I seen it?"_

Washu stared at the waveform, titling her twelve year old looking head to one side. She continued to puzzle over what the waveform could mean and what it reminded her of.

_"Time to do some good, old fashioned research," _she thought firmly to herself. She turned her attention to her floating keyboard and brought up yet another screen.

-----------------

When are you planning to head out?" Akiko asked.

Tomorrow morning," Ranma replied. "I want to get as far as Ueda before sunset."

"What's in Ueda?" Michiko asked.

"There's a dojo there that specializes in thrown weaponry I want to check out," Ranma explained in a very excited voice. "It requires excellent control of ki to even attempt it. It involves being able to infuse, control and steer an object by just using your ki. I want to see if I can learn it."

"That sounds difficult," Michiko commented. "Are you sure you can do it?"

Ranma looked as her sister through half-lidded eyes.

"Sorry," Michiko said with a grin. "Stupid question."

Ranma dropped the look and returned the grin.

"You wanna come along?" Ranma asked, half serious.

"I'm not that adventuresome," Michiko replied.

"This is from someone who is starting to race motorcycles," Ranma pointed out.

"Well... that's different ," Michiko answered, slightly sheepishly. "I know what I'm doing."

"Well, I know what I'm doing," Ranma replied happily. "This is like old school for me."

"Well, if you're going hiking and camping I'll get some nonperishable foods together for you," Akiko said while smiling at the younger girl's excitement. "I'll be in the kitchen, do you need any help packing?"

"No Granny," Ranma informed. "When I get up tomorrow, I'll grab some clothes, my old pack and my hiking shoes."

"And money and the cell phone," Michiko chimed in.

"Right," Akiko agreed. "Now Ranma I know you can take care of yourself, but I expect a phone call from you at least once a day."

"Granny, you don't have to worr-," Ranma began, only to be cut off by the stern, yet caring look from her grandmother. Ranma knew there was no debate here and did the only thing she could do. "Yes ma'am," she answered, while tugging the base of her pony tail.

Akiko smiled at the younger girl.

---------------

Today was the day.

Ranma stretched and yawned while rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. Looking over at her still sleeping sister, Ranma smiled.

_"It is good to be home," _she thought._ "But I wanna hit the road before it gets too late."_

Silently moving, Ranma entered the hallway and stopped before the storeroom door, the one filled with unused tables and chairs, to retrieve a piece of her past. Opening the door, she scooted around the small, cramped room, around the many stored items. Making her way to the corner, where some of the families personal effects were stored, Ranma began to rummage through an old cardboard produce box. Digging around for what she sought only took a few seconds as she pulled a bulky item out, something she hadn't seen since after the first week she arrived at the restaurant.

Her old pack.

Her other, newer pack was lightweight and held almost all the clothes she took to and from school, but it wasn't as durable as her old leather one. Ranma held the old weather-beaten pack up to the filtered, morning light coming through the window and examined it as if were an ancient artifact. She looked over the heavily creased surface, the darker splotches that dotted the lower half of the lightly tanned bag and the heavy straps that were still held in place by the slightly rusted metal pins. The edges of the leather, where it was stitched together with heavy twine-like threads, were more than a little frayed. Overall though, it wasn't in too bad of a shape and still very serviceable.

She smiled and put it on experimentally.

It felt different. Ranma blinked at that. It wasn't quite the same as she remembered it.

_"It use to feel so much different before,"_ she puzzled. _"I wonder what's changed?"_

Ranma removed the pack and examined it again. She watched the empty, battered old pack sag in her hand.

_"That's it,"_ she thought with a renewed smile. _"There's nothing in it. The last time I had this I had everything I owned shoved into it."_

Ranma almost reconsidering taking it. The backpack was an old thing, a part of her past that she wondered if she just should forget. Forget taking her old pack. Forget even going on this trip. Ranma shook her head and shrugged off the almost overpowering sense of nostalgia as she squeezed through the storeroom back toward the door.

_"This is going to be fun," _she reaffirmed to herself. _"It'll be great to hit the road for a bit. See things, do things..._

She closed the door of the store room behind her.

_"... see Tenchi again." _

A faint smile crossed her lips.

She froze on that, shook her head and quickly added, _"For sparring purposes only! He's only a friend."_

Ranma made her way back to the room that she shared with Michiko. Once there, she carefully organized and packed her old pack with clothes, socks and underwear - remembering to leave the dreaded green, frilly ones behind. Once packed, she re-shouldered her pack and nodded to herself.

_"Much better,"_ she thought as she rounded her shoulders, letting her backpack settle into place. _"Head down and pack some food. Wait for Michiko to wake up so I can say good-bye and then check the train schedules."_

--------------------

It was late at night or as it were, early morning when Ami rubbed her tired eyes.

Ranma had left on a training trip a few days ago, but that didn't matter. There was only one Mercury computer and only one person could read it at a time. For the first three days, they took turns reading the vast information displayed on the tiny screen. But the information was so massive that they took to skimming what looked interesting in a hit-and-miss fashion with little positive results. There had to be a way to narrow it down further, but Ami was at a lost on how.

_"There has to be a way to narrow this down some more,"_ Ami thought slightly peeved that she couldn't find what she wanted. _"There's over eighty-five hundred files here between these guys."_

Ranma, before she left, realized the problem before Ami did and suggested they should reconsider working on this since there was no real reason to pursue it. Ami, being the curious type, forged ahead.

Ami paged through the lists of projects than the 'super seven', as Ranma dubbed them, worked on. They all had long lists and two or three had ridiculously long lists. At first they thought there must have been a mistake, but no. There was no mistake.

The 'super seven' were engaged in what seemed to be every major project that the Moon Kingdom had. It was fascinating stuff, but unfortunately next to the file names where a brief description would be listed was the word 'classified' marked in red. These files were beyond their reach to delve into so they had to be satisfied with looking at the mysterious project names.

Fortunately, the files they could access had accurate descriptions next to them, so it was easy to weed out such things as 'Stargates', 'Space Folding' and 'Reflex Based Weaponry' projects from their search. The remaining unflagged red files were still daunting.

"How can seven people accomplish so much in one life?" Ranma had asked. "I mean they must have worked nonstop from the moment they were born until they dropped dead - probably from exhaustion."

"Maybe they had longer life spans," Ami suggested. "After all the Senshi had longer life spans. With the right conditions, medical technology and genetics - who knows how long people lived during the Silver Millennium?"

Ranma shrugged as a response to Ami's suggestion.

"There are a great deal of projects listed for medicine and genetics, and they managed to bind our souls with planetary power," Ami reminded. "Who knows what else they were capable of?"

Ranma nodded, but didn't really have a reply to that.

-------------------

Washu moved among the rows of closet-sized lockers that was located in a dimly lit corner of her immense lab. She would select one, seemingly at random, look through it, before moving onto another random locker in the row.

_"According to my archives, it should be in this block of lockers,_" she thought as she dug through another oversize locker. _"I know I put it here, I know I did."_

Opening another closet size locker, Washu was immediately buried in a pile of yellowed paper, a device that resembled a rack of large, long tubes and other miscellaneous small items.

"That is it! I have got to get my older stuff better organized," she griped aloud while pulling herself from the bottom of the pile.

"I swear, I never thought...," her voice trailed off as she picked up a cylindrical object from the floor.

"That's where that got to!" she cackled excitedly, forgetting her earlier indignation. "I always wondered what happened to my sonic screwdriver."

Pocketing the device, she summoned one of the robotic clean up crew to repack the locker before moving on to the next.

_"It's around here somewhere," _Washu thought determinedly as she dug through another locker. _"I know it is."_

------------------

After traveling three quarters of the day, Ranma arrived in Ueda.

It was a nice sized city that ran along the valley of the Chikuma River valley. Ranma watched the landscape go by as the nearby as the tree covered Mounts Eboshi and Taro framed the scene. She reveled in the feel of the wind blowing through her hair and the warmth of the sun caressing her body. The cityscape in the foreground couldn't mask the natural beauty that surrounded the city.

_"This is a nice looking place,_" Ranma commented as she watched the train near a bridge as it approached the Ueda Station. _"The kind of place that I might look to settle down in." _

Ranma studied the areas near the tracks, looking for a good place to get off.

_"And if my sources are right," _she mused as she spied a good place to get off coming up. "_That is, if what I found on the internet is to be believed, then a practitioner of an unusual martial arts has a small dojo here."_

Jumping from her resting place on the roof of train, Ranma alighted not far from where a local line crossed under the JR line. Removing a map from her back pocket, Ranma looked about for landmarks to find her bearing.

_"Lets see... the tracks cross here...," _she thought as she took in her surroundings, _"... a National Road is northeast of here... Shinshu University is here... hmmm..."_

Ranma's brow furrowed as she studied the map.

_"West," _she concluded. _"If I head west, I can meet National Road 141 where it splits and follow that north. Then I can head west on this road,"_ she continued her thoughts as she traced her route on the map, _"and that will take me by Uedahigashi High School. The Seiji Dojo is just northwest of there."_

_"Or,"_ Ranma thought with great mirth as she carefully folded the map and placed it back in her back pocket,_ "I could roof hop and just head straight north from where I'm at..."_

With a broad smile on her face, she donned her backpack and leapt on the nearest telephone pole. From there, onto the nearest rooftop and she headed due north.

------------------

It took far longer for Washu to find what she was looking for, but to be fair, she didn't think she'd have to go that far back. Way far back.

Almost to the beginning.

It appeared to be a flat, unremarkable looking pane of dark colored glass. Washu studied it carefully for damage.

_"It looks like it's okay,"_ she thought as she looked for obvious signs of damage. _"The stasis field successfully protected it from age."_

Finding no damage or decay, she held out out before her in one hand as the other touched a flushed, unnoticeable key. Washu felt a certain thrill when the the device opened itself on its motorized hinges.

She smiled while looking at the exposed keys, _"It has been a long time."_

She couldn't resist activating it first, before plugging it into her newer, better system. Washu carefully removed a small, flat object, about the size and thickness of a nickel from the smooth, glass-like surface and pressed it against her temple. The disk glowed and grew into a semitransparent visor that cover Washu's eyes, but was still clear enough not to obstruct her vision.

Patterns of light danced on the flat handset that she held, before settling on a grid. Tapping the just formed keys on the handset, the visor began displaying it's startup sequence.

_"Welcome to the Mars Computer," _Washu read. _"Please stand by as startup completes."_

----------------

Ranma looked at the sky and reveled in such a perfect day. She was only three days out of Ueda, on her way to Okayama. Her progress had been slowed by being sidetracked by almost every dojo or shrine she ran across. She hadn't done anything comparable in well over two years and was throughly enjoying herself. She had made good time between the visits to the dojos and shrines that she discovered, and found herself approaching the outskirts of Gifu. She was tired, but happy and was looking forward to a good soaking bath in a public bath house.

_"This is just what I needed,_" Ranma thought happily as she walked along the road. "_The dojo in Ueda was still the best I visited so far! Who would've thought that ping-pong balls could be used in such an offensive way?"_

Birds whistled overhead as Ranma decided that the tree tops were the place to be. Using a bit of ki, she leapt onto a tall branch of a nearby tree and began tree hopping. Tree hopping was far more challenging than the roof hopping she used to. Having to track and watch out for the many branches in the way of her target branch and an occasional weak one that broke when she landed, kept her on her toes. She found the thrill of the unexpected exciting.

Then there was the too unexpected.

The previous day, when she was at the apex of a tree hop, a stray bird flew right into her flight path, hitting her shoulder before entangling itself in her flowing hair. This had the effect of upsetting Ranma's fine balance and she tumbled uncontrollably to the ground. Ranma frantically batted her hands around as she desperately tried to free herself from her unwanted passenger and tried to regain her balance. Her efforts to right herself in mid-air failed, but she managed to succeed by snagging the end of a passing tree branch just before touch down.

Once coming to rest on terra firma, she carefully untangled her hair and freed the black bird that she netted. Watching the panicked bird fly away, Ranma started to giggle.

_"All the power at my disposable and I nearly get taken out by a stray bird,"_ she thought with a chuckle._ "A stupid bird."_

Though the fall wouldn't have killed her, it could have seriously injured her. Combing her hair back, she quickly redid it into a long, rope-like pig tail. After assuring herself that her hair was put back safely, she took to the trees once again.

That was yesterday, today Ranma was whistling a happy tune as she continued into Gifu where she would rest for the night.

_"At this rate," _she though while whistling, _"I'll make Okayama in two - four days tops. Unless I find more cool dojos like I have been doing."_

Paralleling the road that followed the Nagara River into Gifu, Ranma happily hopped from one tree to the next until the treetops turned into rooftops. She then took to the streets and walked. As Ranma entered city proper, she took in the sky and noted the changing weather and made plans to find someplace to sleep indoors for the night.

--------------------

"This Hans Zarkov must have been an overachiever," Ami commented to herself. "Over sixteen hundred projects, most of which I have no idea what they are."

Ami was back at paging through the files of the 'super seven', but now she found the official title was 'Tech-master'. To Ami though, 'super seven' sounded - cooler.

Ami skimmed the summaries for the 'Space Field Modifier Generator' and 'Sub-Field Gravitational Stabilizers' and shook her head. So much of the alien terminology was lost to her. She had spent a great deal of time looking for some sort of glossary or dictionary of terms, but was either met with failure or the definitions that were found contained even more alien words.

The next person on the list was a Elias Huer. He had nearly the same amount as Zarkov with a list of descriptions just as cryptic. The next two names on the list had a mixed bag of classified and mostly unclassified file listings. The last three names were women. That pleased Ami to no end.

The first women on the list had no classified files. Ami felt disappointed in this, but after scanning the lists for anything useful, she moved on.

Ami looked at the next overachiever on the list. She was involved in everything from the 'Folding Hyper-space Pockets' to mundane sounding things as 'Gravitational Deep-space Probes'. What really drew Ami's attention was the large number of projects that this Techno-mage was involved in that were labeled classified in comparison to the others. About eighty percent were classified.

The next woman was even worse, as far as being able to access her files. There were so many projects marked in red it looked like the screen was bleeding. In a sense it was, this Techno-mage had almost all of her projects listed as classified.

Neither her or Ranma attempts to open any of the red flagged, classified files came to anything and they were reluctant to call Usagi in for help. They both agreed that calling Usagi would be the last, desperate act that they would do. They would first exhaust any and all other possible venues of search first.

_"Ranma is right, there is no real emergency or urgency,"_ Ami thought to herself. _"I could read over the files that we have access to at our leisure. This is mostly an exercise in curiosity, not need."_

Ami shut down and put away her computer and prepared for bed.

_"Besides,"_ she mused, _"it's summer break. I have to have some fun sometime."_

Clambering onto her bed and pulling the sheets over her, she had one last, sleepy thought, _"For now, I'll be content with reading over Hans Zarkov, Elias Huer and the other Tech-master's records to see where that leads me...."_

Ami stretched and yawned underneath the covers, letting the comfortable warmth of the muscles relax her.

_"... and leave Tech-master's Washu Hakubi and Tsunami Jurai's files for another time."_

-----------------

-----------------

Notes:

Howdy all!

Other chapter completed.

I don't know if it is proper etiquette to do this, but I've seen other writers do this - so what the heck.

---

On 2004-11-12, Togashi Gaijin wrote:

_--I'm surprised no one has caught on to Ranma's roommate yet.-- _

_Heh. Not everyone has access to the fansubs of Tenshi na Konamaiki. :) _

-You got it!

Crowd goes crazy, screaming, yelling and throwing confetti, balloons, women's undergarments... 

... women's undergarments?

"Happosai! Stop that!"

For those who don't know: Tenshi na Konamaiki (or A Cheeky Angel, as released by Viz) is the story of a boy, Megumi Amatsuka, who makes a wish on a cursed book to be a 'man among men'... and gets turned into a girl.

Hmm...

When I saw that, I thought, "What a prefect roommate for Ranma - so much in common".

---

On 2004-11-14 Anonymous wrote:

_Also I think that it's Tsunami's plan for Tenchi to marry all 5 of them, and it's no coincidence that Washu, her daughter Ryoko, and her great-great-granddaughter Mihoshi all met Tenchi, as well as the 2 Juraian princesses, one of whom is assimilated with Tsunami, Washu's sister. _

-I have only watched the OVA's, but I did look up a few sites on the internet and was surprised on how the writers of the anime had changed the characters - major ones - from one series to the next. Some of the changes were enough that on some of the sites I had looked up, had to write the characters bios as "in the OVA's she was this, in the TV series she was that, in 'Techi in Tokyo' she was changed to this" - and remember, this was a bio for the same character. I will most likely try to stick with what I know, extrapolate from there and put my 'spin' on the characters as I go along. As you can tell, I already started on Washu and Tsunami.

_If I had been Ami, I would have wanted to observe at least one of Ranma and Tenchi's sparing matches and get some readings on his power. _

- bonk , bonk , bonk (sound of author beating head against desk)

You're right. I wish I could say I thought of that, but that would be lying. I can't believe I missed that, especially when Ami is right there!

You know, I'm gonna have to go back and add something in there now.

_You should go over your story and correct some mistakes in grammer and spelling._

-I fully intend on revisiting and revising the earlier chapters before I got a good, steady pre-reader. Right now though, I'd like to concentrate on getting the story out. I'm afraid if I go back and start revising my earlier chapters, I would get bogged down doing that and not make any progress on the story.

Thanks for reading.


	24. University Part 5

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

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University Part 5

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The attack had been going on for most of the day and continued well into the night. It came as almost a complete surprise and the outer colonies fell into silence in the first few hours after it began. While soldiers and the fleet were trying to deal with the enemy, the enemy launched a series of offensives that were crippling to the life blood of the planet. Deep underground, people hid themselves away, hoping for the best - fearing the worst.

In other rooms, other people were working on keeping everyone alive.

The Biosphere Control Room was shrouded in perpetual twilight, making the small displays more legible. On the long walls of the large room, huge three-dimensional screens filled every inch. These were used to display critical information at a rapid fire pace so the Tech-master in charge could monitor them from anywhere in the room. Before the screens were three staged rows of free floating control consoles, each with squarish control boards looking like panes of glass. The room was chaotic as the technicians manning the boards were frantically trying to regain control of the situation.

The pace eased as the situation improved and many felt the they were past the critical stage. Then on the largest of the screens, representing all of Mars, a large red flare of light sprang to life.

Then things went to hell.

"Shit...," someone said.

"I'm getting a space rift - it's heading...," another said.

"We gotta a problem here...," yet another with panic.

"What's the status? Report!" a commanding voice barked.

"Gravitational Field Generator offline," came an urgent call from across the room.

"How?" came the reply. "We had it stabilized, what happened?"

"A Spatial Rift Bomb detonated near Mount Olympus, Tech-master," a scrawny technician answered. "It has damaged the field emitter coils. They are degenerating at a rate of fifteen centi-gravitons per minute."

"What condition are the back ups?" the Tech-master asked.

"They were taken out by a another Rift Bomb, a burrowing type" came the answer. "It was well targeted. The secondary and primary safeties and backup systems were taken down as well."

"Casualties?"

"They're dead," came a detached reply.

"Shit," the Tech-master said with venom at the loss of twenty seven hundred people. "What's the condition of the primary Planetary Gravitational Field Generator?"

"It was destroyed in the Spatial Rifting that damaged the emitter coils," the technician answered while his fingers danced on the plane glass control board, images flashing on his screen, "There's nothing to stabilize. The only reason we have gravity now is the built up gravitons in the coils. Once they're gone, the gravity's gone."

She cursed to herself. Who would have thought that every important life support system would be hit at the same time? Only a handful of people even knew the locations of the Biosphere equipment as a precaution. How did the enemy know? Pacing back and forth, the Tech-master turned the problem over in her head. Her thoughts were interrupted by a messenger that rushed up to her.

"From the Queen," the uniformed messenger said handing her an envelope while bowing.

Opening the letter and discarding the envelope onto the floor, her brow furrowed heavily as she read.

"What is it?" one of her assistants asked with worry.

"We'll only have normal gravity for three days. After that the field will collapse and soon after the atmosphere will go with it," she informed her staff. "The Queen wants us to evacuate as many people as we can."

"How?" came a question from one of the anonymous technicians.

"We are to divert our efforts to manning and powering the Stargates," she said looking at the anxious faces surrounding her. "The population has already been informed and evacuation routes are already starting to fill."

"Where are we sending them?" a female tech asked.

"Anyplace but here," came the curt reply. "Mind you, we have already lost contact with the outer planets. We assume that all perished on those worlds. The inners are in the same shape we are in, so let's coordinate with them. If any of us are to survive this, we have to pull together."

Murmers and shouts of agreement filled the room.

"Tech-master!" a nearby communications post called. "The Luna Palace is under attack. The reports are of a great loss of life-"

"The Queen? What about the Queen?" a voice from the crowd asked.

The man manning the communications equipment shook his head, "They don't know. There is fierce fighting going on inside the palace grounds - Earth is being bombarded by planet bombs!"

"Oh no..."

"I have family on Terra..."

"Why? Why are they..."

"Bastards! We should kill them all. No mercy..."

"Quiet people. Quiet!" the Tech-master roared. "Kei what else is going on?"

"The Dark Kingdom forces have massed on Luna and many of the Lunar guards are dead." Kei fell silent as he strain to make out what was being reported. "Most, no! All of the Senshi are reported dead too," he reported gravely.

"No way..."

"How..."

"We were betrayed. I heard one of the generals turned on us..."

"We're doomed..."

"Spacefold!" cried another voice interrupting the discord.

"What?!" the Tech-master exclaimed. "Markcus, confirm."

"Already confirmed," the sweating technician reported. "Energy signature shows the wormhole was formed by the Queen herself." Markcus turned to face the crowd, "She has transported and thrown the Dark Kingdom forces into and through the gateway."

"Dear lord," someone mumbled. "Such use of power probably killed her..."

"We're doomed..."

"Shut-up..."

"Do we have anything to seal it? To keep them from coming back?"

"Object on screen, fast approaching the gate!" came another panicky call.

Everyone turned in mass toward the screen, a small dot was approaching the wormhole.

"Track and magnify," the Tech-master commanded.

The dot resolved itself into a girl in her teens, sporting a teal fuku flying unhindered through space.

"A Senshi!"

"Which one? That one doesn't look familiar..."

"I don't care, as long as she's on our side..."

"I thought Kei said they were all dead..."

"Which Senshi is that?..."

"Fire Walker," the Tech-master whispered.

The fuku clad girl entered the wormhole. Minutes ticked by with nothing happening. Suddenly the wormhole started to contract in on itself.

"Gravity within the wormhole has exceeded the equivalent of eleven solar masses and growing!" Markcus called out. The room was silent as all watched the wormhole collapse in on itself, getting smaller before wavering out of existence.

"Oh my...," someone said like a payer.

Silence filled the control room as all looked at the emptiness of space that once held the wormhole.

"Everyone," the Tech-master said loud enough to bring everybody's attention. "We need to get the Stargates up and operational quickly. We don't have enough time to do it by the book, but we must get them up and running within the half hour. That means forcing the slipstream ether through the subspace field coils."

"If we do that, the subspace field coils will be damaged. We won't be able to come back," someone pointed out.

"There's nothing to come back to," the Tech-master snapped back. "Right now we need to save as many lives as we can, Earth and Luna are out - they're being heavily planet bombed. Lori bring up the star-charts of all known habitable planets outside our system that we can evacuate to."

"What about the different ecosystems? Won't the different germs and bacteria kill us?"

"The Tech-master on Venus has been working on a genetic-level virus to infect and protect us. It will mutate and modify our defense systems on a genetic level to compensate for the new environment. We'll infect everyone traveling with it, that should protect us."

Some of her subordinates looked at her, others were too busy trying to redirect the needed power.

"It was part of a extra-solar colonization project that was supposed to be announced in the next two months and take place over the next three years," the Tech-master explained. "It looks like the timeline for colonization has been pushed up."

Many nodded and concentrated on starting up the massive Stargates.

"Try and contact the other inner planets. Let's try and send everyone to at least the same star-system. Also, we need to move as much equipment as possible through the Stargates as well. If we are to survive, we are going to need every bit of technology that we can move."

"Yes ma'am."

"Lori, have you located a system yet?"

"Yes ma'am," the harried girl replied. "On screen four. It's located in the same galactic arm as we are and it's within the four hundred light-year range. It has three habitable worlds with near Earth-like atmosphere and, according to our expeditions, no intelligent indigenous life. There's also the fact that there is very little gravitation distortions between here and there, it will make maintaining the Stargate's wormhole easier."

"Good work Lori. System THX-1138?" the Tech-master thought aloud, studying the readout. "Very well. Inform the rest of the inners of our destination."

"Yes ma'am."

"Kei," the Tech-master continued. "Get a hold of the Tech-master on Venus and tell her what we're planning - tell Tech-master Jurai that Mars is evacuating and they'd better do the same. Tell her those organic ships she's been working on will probably be needed to move equipment."

"Yes, Tech-master Hakubi," Kei answered with a salute.

Eyes opened.

_"It's been a long time since I had that dream,_" Washu thought as she eased her small body into a seated position. _"A very, very long time."_

-----------------

Ranma was thrown head over heels but managed to land on her feet. A fist came flying at her head, which she evaded by bobbing her head slightly to the left. Pivoting at the heel, Ranma went low, extended a leg and tapped a pressure point with her toe. Her opponent, a big blurry man, yelped as he lost use of his lower right leg, causing him to stagger. Ranma took advantage of her opponent's surprise and with several well placed hits, took him down quickly - but not into unconsciousness.

"Hold!" came a commanding voice.

Ranma immediately backed off, allowing her opponent to stagger to his feet. They both bowed to each other and then turned and bowed as one to the dojo's master.

"You are very skilled for one so very young," the master of the dojo stated as he fingered his beard. "You defeated my best student with little effort. I'm afraid that there is not much I can teach you."

Ranma bowed respectfully to the Master.

"Thank you for your hospitality," she said while holding, then raising from her bow. "Can you recommend someplace that I can go to improve my skill?"

The dojo master looked not at Ranma, but out into space, as he stroked his long, white beard. After a moment of contemplation, he addressed the redhead.

"There is a place," he said with a pause. "About two miles from here, they may have what you seek. Come, get cleaned up and dine with me and I'll tell you how to get there."

Ranma bowed again and went to do what she was told.

-----------------

Washu studied the waveform, still displayed on the screen as it had been doing for the last week. On other, free floating, screens were different images from the Battle of Juuban.

_"All this happened when I was still a prisoner of Kagato,"_ Washu thought as she studied the news archive from almost two years ago. "_Then settling in, experimenting with Tenchi to see if his partial pure human heritage affected the Light Hawk Wings, then Mihoshi's ship demolishing everything...," _she sighed,_ "... and taking care of Taro."_

The little redhead girl shook her head.

_"So many distractions, too many distractions" _she scolded herself._ "I didn't even bother do a proper and complete scan to appraise myself of the situation here on Earth. I was just surprised that so many survived the fall."_

Taking her floating chair, Washu moved her small body to better see the smaller screens showing various Senshi.

_"It looks like the Queen managed to save them all somehow," _she thought as she continued to stare at the images before her. _"All are accounted for - I wonder want they have planned?"_

_"Maybe I should enlist Tenchi in this," _Washu contemplated._ "After all, his friend is one of them."_

She cocked her head while scrutinizing a picture of Sailor Sun on one of the screens.

_"Of all the ones, it would have to be that one,"_ she thought. _"I have to talk to Tsunami about this tonight. She had more to do with her creation and binding than anyone else."_

She sighed. _"If only she didn't get de-corporalized using that experimental spacecraft with the Trans-Folding Drive when she left her lab on Venus. It would be so much easier to deal with her if she'd remained in a physical state."_

--------------

Ranma re-shouldered her backpack and headed off westward in the predawn. She was leaving Gifu heading for Otsu, about midway between Gifu and Okayama. Setting a steady pace as she walked in the early morning, Ranma made her way to the outskirts before leaping and taking to the trees again.

She had gotten more comfortable with the challenges of tree hopping and didn't even miss a beat when she removed the train schedule from her blouse pocket.

_"Let's see...,"_ she thought as she pushed off another branch. _"The JR Line goes here and runs through Otsu. If I stay along here..."_

She landed on a branch and leapt for the next, forty feet away.

_"... I could hop a train here... and ride it the rest of the way into Otsu..."_

She replaced the schedule back into its pocket as she landed and leapt again.

_"... or I could keep doing what I'm doing and maybe run across another dojo or something..."_

Land, leap.

_"Hmm... decision, decisions..._"

-------------

"Tsunami, I need to talk to you," Washu said, addressing the mirror in the early morning darkness.

Washu was standing before a long mirror in one of the guest rooms. On the floor, snuggled into their futons, slept Ayeka and Sasami Jurai. Both forms were lost in the darkness as they slept unaware of Washu's presence. Because of the closeness of the room, Washu took some small precautions to make sure that she was not interrupted unexpectedly.

"Tsunami," Washu repeated. "I need to talk to you,"

After a moment of nothing happening, a shodowy figure emerged in the darkness of the mirror. It resolved itself into an elegantly dressed woman in her mid to late twenties. She sported an outfit with multi layered shoulder pads that supported the white robes that covered the long, flowing purple dress underneath. Both halves of the robe were held in place by a decorated clasp that almost passed for a breast plate. Her heart shaped face was framed by blue hair that disappeared behind her. The brow of the person in the mirror held two circular dots as the magenta colored eyes studied the short redhead that summoned her.

"Yes, little Washu?" the figure asked before noticing the expression on Washu's face. "What's the matter?"

"The Senshi are back," Washu said simply.

The phantom women's face looked confused for a brief moment before her eyes widened. "Are you sure?"

"Yes," came the simple reply.

"All of them?"

"Yes, as far as I can tell."

The figure of Tsunami looked slightly downward in contemplation. "They survived - but, how?"

"I looked into the logs and discovered a temporal waveform that synched with the soul-seeds of the Senshi. My guess is that when the Queen disposed of the Dark Kingdom, she moved the Senshi into the present to be reborn."

"What about Fire Walker? She was in the wormhole when it collapsed, there would have been no way for the Queen to send her."

"True. My guess that her soul was reincarnated the old fashion way: One life at a time."

Tsunami remained quiet for a moment before asking, "What about the Queen?"

"Haven't found anything on her. I doubt that she survived though - her power was... different. But I wouldn't be surprised if she was reincarnated the same way as Fire Walker and is out there somewhere too."

"Do you think this will this affect our plans?" Tsunami asked. "We didn't spend over twenty thousand years building a galactic empire to have it come undone now."

"I don't think there is any threat to what we have built," Washu replied. "I just thought you might want to know what is going on, just in case. You had more of a hand with Fire Walker's creation than I did..." Washu's voice trailed off.

Tsunami was frowning, deep in thought.

"What is it?" Washu asked.

"If the Queen is not around... who's keeping Fire Walker in check?"

Both women stared at one another.

"I don't know," came the unwelcomed answer. "But let me fill you in on what I found out."

Washu told Tsunami everything that she had been able to discover on the Senshi from local news reports and the government files she managed to hack into. She briefly covered the history of the Senshi from demon fighting urban legends, to the Battle of Juuban and the thin, sporadic reports of them in the half year after the battle. After that, the reports dribbled off to nothing.

"So it seems that the Dark Kingdom survived also," Tsunami said mostly to herself.

"The Senshi apparently dealt with them once and for all, though," Washu said. "But Fire Walker didn't show up until the Protectors reappeared."

Tsunami eyebrow twitched.

"That was a mistake I knew would happen," she lit up in anger. "I knew we should have destroyed them all or left them inert, but that damn Zarkov wanted to keep them around for experimental purposes."

Tsunami caught her breath before snorting out, "Him and his damned artificial intelligence research."

Washu waited for Tsunami to calm down before continuing.

"What do you think the Senshi are up to?" she finally asked.

"My guess would be that the Senshi are rebuilding the Moon Kingdom," Tsunami stated surprisingly calmly after her rant. "If they are, we have to think about this from a political standpoint and where it leaves us."

"What do you mean?" Washu asked.

"The Empire exists because of a fine balance of power that is shared among the Great Houses," Tsunami explained. "If that balance were to be disrupted, the Empire could be thrown into chaos."

"I really don't understand," Washu said. "Politics was never my favorite subject, if you recall."

Tsunami nodded.

"I have been keeping pace with the changes in the Empire," Tsunami continued. "With some... sources I have."

Washu raised a questioning eyebrow that did not go unnoticed by the other woman.

"Before we left Jurai with Ayeka to pursue Ryoko, I - created little helpers to keep me informed on the state of the Empire."

"Little bio-tech spies?" Washu asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes," Tsunami answered curtly. "Now, as to the Empire..."

"My sources did some quick snooping around and have reported that one, maybe two, of the Houses have started to have ambitions of power and aggressive expansionism."

"Who?"

Tsunami took a deep breath and answered.

"Zarkov," she spat. "House Zarkov - again."

Silence.

Washu sighed.

"Why?" she asked. "I mean why now after all this time?"

"He has always had a unique view on power," Tsunami said bitterly. "It was always kept in check by the other Houses. Over the last two years, he has been cutting some deals with some of the Lower Houses, acquiring power that way."

"I seem to recall," Washu said thoughtfully, "that he had an idea that all the decision making should be turned over to bio-computers or some such nonsense. Something about 'eliminating the human factor in important decisions'."

Tsunami nodded.

"But it's not just him," Tsunami added. "In what little time I've had to look into the situation, I found that there is another player involved."

Washu pondered a bit, before responding.

"Really? Who is he?"

"She. My sources have discovered that she is the driving force behind House Zarkov's renewed desire for power."

"What do you have on her?" Washu asked.

"Here," Tsunami answered while pushing a hand up to the plane on glass, a small capsule extruded through the glass and was deposited onto Washu's palm. "This has what little that I was able to find out about her. She seems to have come out of nowhere and has been manipulating things behind the scenes."

Washu sighed. _"Great, this is all we need...," _she thought.

Washu took the capsule and placed it into a slit on the cuff of her long sleeved shirt. Holding up her forearm, a holographic projection of an old women, a very old woman, came to life.

The women was rapped in a gray, hooded cloak that was trimmed in deep blue. Her face was mostly hidden in the shadows of the hood of her cloak, but what could be seen of her face was the hawk-like nose that protruded from her face like a beak. Behind the nose, barely visible in the shadows, were two piercing blue eyes that emitted a malevolent light of their own. Her right, claw-like hand rested on the top of an ornate cane.

Looking at the hologram made Washu shiver.

"I see. But how could the Senshi fit into all of this?" Washu said. "How could the knowledge of their existence destabilize the Empire?"

"House Zarkov could use the Senshi to upset the balance of the Empire," Tsunami explained, "by one of several approaches."

Washu motioned with her hand for Tsunami to continue.

"Houses Zarkov could try to declare the Senshi, which were considered Royalty of the Moon Kingdom, one of the Great Houses of Jurai."

Washu digested this as Tsunami continued.

"By being of the Moon Kingdom, Zarkov could claim that they are by far the oldest," Tsunami continued, "Zarkov could try to elevate them to the status of First House - replacing the House Jurai.

"To what end?" Washu asked, confused. "I mean, what good would it be to replace the House Jurai with... well, the House Moon? How would that garner any of the other Houses power?"

"The goal is to upset the balance of power within the Empire," Tsunami explained. "Some of the other Houses may object, others may support this motion and during the squabbling and struggle for power, it would give the House Zarkov an opportunity for wresting control of key areas of power for their own gain."

Washu weighed the words of Tsunami.

"Or," Tsunami continued, "House Zarkov may go as far as cutting a deal with the Senshi, adopting them into the House. They could promise that the Senshi's reconstruction and rebuilding of the Moon Kingdom go unhindered and make themselves very powerful allies along the way."

"Powerful allies?" Washu questioned. "The Juraian forces are powerful enough to handle the Senshi."

Tsunami shook her head, "Not Fire Walker. She could, if she wanted to, destroy the Jurai Empire - single handedly."

It took a moment for that bit of information to register to Washu.

"What?!" Washu said loud enough to stir Sasami. Ayeka just snorted softly in her sleep, undisturbed. After assuring that both were still asleep. Washu asked quietly, "I mean, Fire Walker could do that? I mean I know my part, but she was your project as a whole."

Tsunami remained silent for a whole minute before answering.

"We'll take about that later," Tsunami answered carefully. "Let's handle the possible political ramifications of the Senshi first."

"Okay," Washu nodded in consent. "But I expect an explanation later."

Tsunami nodded.

"How should we handle the Senshi," Washu continued. "What are our options?"

"Well," Tsunami ventured. "Earth's system is well within the Jurai Empire's sphere of influence, but there are several things we can try. One: We could recognize them as an independent state."

"If we do that, others may want the same status," Washu pointed out.

Tsunami conceeded, "We don't want that. Like a loose thread in a tapestry, everything could become undone." Tsunami paused for a second before continuing. "Two: We could incorporate them into the Empire formally."

"That would be the best way," Washu stated.

"Yes, that would be the best way," Tsunami agreed. "If the Senshi are planning on rebuilding the Moon Kingdom, any results would be about a thousand years from now. If we move to induct the Earth now, that would abort their plans."

The two woman looked at one another in silence.

"The down side," Tsunami continued, "is if the Senshi find that their rebuilding efforts are threatened by us doing that, they would fight us."

"The entire Jurai Empire couldn't stand up against Fire Walker?" Washu asked. "How's that possible?"

"I promised to talk about that later," Tsunami reminded Washu. "Take my word for it and let's handle one thing at a time."

Washu sighed loudly.

"What if the House Jurai beat the other houses to the punch? Say, adopting the Senshi and bring them into the House Jurai - that would defuse the situation before it started, wouldn't it?"

"That would work...," Tsunami mused. "We would have to contact the Senshi to see if they're agreeable to it. They would probably want some kind of assurance that the Empire wouldn't interfere with the future Moon Kingdom. Whatever we do, we cannot forget that will have to deal with the Emperor as well."

"We are also assuming that the Senshi are rebuilding the Moon Kingdom," Washu pointed out. "They may not be - they might be completely unaware of their past."

"That is a possibility," Tsunami conceded. "But I feel that would be unlikely. In either case, whether they are involved in rebuilding or not, they will have to be dealt with - hopefully in a peaceful manner - without bringing chaos to the Empire."

"I... see," Washu said while thinking,_ "Now I remember why I hate politics so much."_

Tsunami nodded. "We must be careful."

On that proclamation, Sasami stirred some more. Washu froze waiting to see if she would wake up. Seeing that morning was fast approaching, Washu decided to take this up another time.

"We'll talk some more tonight," she said the the figure in the mirror.

Tsunami responded with a nod and faded from existence. Washu made her way quietly to the door and with one last look around, exited.

--------------

After about an hour and a half of tree hopping, Ranma alighted on the boxcar of a passing freight train. She sat and watched the scenery go by for the first thirty minutes before breaking out the cellphone to take care of business.

"Hello? Granny?" Ranma spoke into the cellphone, while shielding it from the effects of the wind. "I'm fine, how's everything back home?"

Ranma strained to hear what was being said on the other end.

"That noise? Oh, I'm on a train," Ranma replied to a question. "Huh? Oh no, it's - um, not costing much to ride."

Ranma listen to the questions being asked.

"No Granny, you don't understand. I'm _on_ a train," Ranma explained.

Ranma waited for a reply from the other end.

"Granny you still there? Hello? Hello?"

Ranma jerked her ear away from the handset as a loud and concerned voice exploded from it.

"Granny... Granny... Granny!" Ranma said breaking into Akiko's spiel. "It's all right! It's all right - trust me."

Ranma listened to a much calmer Akiko. As she did, a smile crossed her face.

"Don't worry," Ranma said. "I'll be fine. I'm going to be in Otsu overnight, maybe even all day tomorrow. I plan on leaving after I check out a few of the local dojos."

She paused to listen to her grandmother, her smile growing as she did so.

"Love you too," Ranma's smile broaden further as she heard Akiko's voice. "I'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye."

Later in Otsu...

Ranma leapt off the boxcar just short of the Otsu station not far from the Shiga Prefectural Office. Adjusting the straps on her backpack, Ranma followed the tracks to the station. She noted that the train she had been on continued through the station heading for parts unknown. Upon entering the building, Ranma made for a line of public phones and sought out a phonebook. The last few days had proved that some stations had phonebooks while others were missing them. Much to her annoyance, this one had them missing.

_"Great, now I have to find someplace with a phonebook or ask around_," she groused to herself.

Looking around the vast lobby area of the station, Ranma spied a local map in a free standing, triangular shaped information display. Moving toward it through the thin, milling crowd, Ranma jumped as someone copped a good feel of her behind. Spinning about with the intension of dishing out some subtle, but painful justice, she was thwarted by the fact the perpetrator turned out to be a woman.

A very lovely woman.

A very lovely woman, who winked and smiled at Ranma before turning and continuing on to wherever she was going.

Ranma stood there for a whole two minutes, stupified by the fact a woman would do that. She was so used to guys doing that, she was frozen by the unexpected twist.

_"Th-That was a girl!"_ The thought repeated through her mind as she tried to wrap her mind around what had happened.

Blink-blinking as she came back to the here and now, Ranma rolled her shoulders to re-seated her backpack and continued her way to the oversized directory and local map. She was used to reacting when guys grabbed her, she was at a loss at what to do when a women did the same thing. By the time she came to the conclusion that she should have been outraged, it was too late to do anything - the woman was gone.

She sighed. The next time she would give whoever touched her inappropriately a good sprain in their hand. With the matter as settled as it was going to get, Ranma focused her attention on the map of the area.

_"Let's see what they have here...," _she thought as she skimmed the directory for the nearest schools. _"The two closest ones to me are Shiga Girls High School and Shiga Women's Junior College... Zeze High School is nearby too... hmmm... Usually where there is a school, there is a dojo, but only if it's a co-ed or a boy's school." _

Ranma pondered this. _"Maybe there is a dojo that specializes in martial arts for women in the area. I can check out the area while I'm looking for something to eat_."

Ranma turned away from the directory and headed for the exit.

_"If I don't run across anything,"_ she thought to herself. _"I can find a phonebook wherever I eat at and go about this the usual way."_

It was kind of like detective work.

Ranma found that for the most part, the dojos listed in the phone book would offered very little in the way of a challenge. But the martial arts community was a small one, so the owners of the dojo would most likely know of a more powerful dojo that would be able to teach Ranma something new. The trick was finding a dojo that would be willing to point the way.

Usually after a demonstration of her skill, the dojos were more than happy to oblige.

--------------

Late night.

"Fire Walker, how powerful is she?" Washu prompted, picking up the conversation from earlier in the morning.

Tsunami remained silent for a whole minute before sighing.

"Do you remember when we worked on the Senshi projects. Do you remember how young and talented we were - how exciting it all was?"

She remembered well, everyday new ground was being broken - new and exciting discoveries were made at break-neck speed. Even with the many set backs, they learned something new. Washu nodded and waited for Tsunami to continue.

Tsunami sighed and spoke in a soft voice, almost a whisper. "We pushed the envelope of knowledge, we had our share of failures, but that only spurred us on the greater heights."

She lapsed into silence.

"Fire Walker was not bounded to the Sun to focus her power through, her Senshi name was selected as misdirection for any enemies foolish enough to attack us."

Silence again.

"What was she bound to?" Washu asked.

"She was bounded to the galactic core," Tsunami answered. "With unexpected results."

"The galactic core?!" Washu mind raced. _"The power under her control must be enormous!" _She then blinked and remembered the rest of Tsunami statement. "What unexpected results?"

Tsunami looked lost for a moment. She let out a heavy sigh -a very heavy one.

"The center of the galaxy is massive, massive enough to easily make Fire Walker the most powerful Senshi - maybe the most powerful being ever created. You remember the Corbett Capacity/Stress tests we did on each of the Senshi?"

Washu nodded, the Corbett Capacity/Stress test was a standard bench test of the abilities of the Senshi.

"I remember. We did one on you after your - accident. You rated high, in the three million range at fifty percent if I recall," Washu said.

Tsunami smile thinly, "Yes. That accident did have some interesting side effects."

"Side effects! I thought you were dead," Washu snorted. "If I'd known you were still alive, I never would have renamed star system THX-1138 after you."

Tsunami smile widened a bit at the redhead's reaction. Her smile faded as she returned to the matter at hand.

"Do you remember any of the results of the Corbett Capacity/Stress for the Senshi?"

"I didn't go over their past files yet," Washu answered. "I was too busy trying to find out what was going on now."

Tsunami nodded, "Heaven's Bearer rated fifty thousand at fifty percent and Harbinger's Twilight rated one hundred seventy thousand at the same level. Jog any memories?"

Washu nodded, she remembered some of it now.

"We were expecting readings in the two million, five hundred thousand range at fifty percent for Fire Walker," Tsunami informed. "What we got was measurements in the four billion range at eight percent before we stopped the tests."

Silence fell like a heavy blanket, but unlike a heavy blanket, it was neither warm nor comforting.

"Four million? At eight percent?" Washu asked, hoping she misheard.

"Four billion." Tsunami clarified.

"Four billion?! How?" Washu asked, throughly shocked.

Tsunami shook her head as she answered, "What we didn't anticipate was the galactic center having so many naturally occurring connections to other universes."

Washu remained silent as she took in that bit of information.

"She tapped into all of them, didn't she? All the universes that the galactic core is connected to?"

Tsunami nodded.

"You created a monster," Washu said in a hushed voice, filled with wonder.

Tsunami nodded her head. "We never really found out how powerful Fire Walker was," she admitted. "We were afraid to test her all out. In her untransformed state she can access powers in the two hundred thousand range at forty percent - that can easily lay waste the Solar System. Transformed... I really don't know."

"You must have some idea," Washu prodded.

"Every test we gave her to find the limits of her power, she exceeded," Tsunami said with a shake of her head. "Her ability to draw as much power as she wanted never reached a curve, so we couldn't even calculate a theoretical limit."

"But the Corbett Capacity/Stress test was four billion at eight percent, you should have-" Washu was cut off as Tsunami interrupted her.

"She reached eight percent at two hundred eighty million and it didn't budge after that."

Silence fell between the two.

"So... if it came down to it, a military solution is out," Washu said flatly. "What can we do?"

"A military solution should be our last resort anyway," Tsunami answered curtly. "I could deal with Fire Walker in her untransformed state - if I caught her by surprise - if it was absolutely necessary. Let's hope it doesn't come to that, because things could get very messy if it did."

"So, what do you suggest?"

"We should wait and see what the Senshi are up to for sure," Tsunami stated. "If they are working on rebuilding, then we should try for adoption into the House Jurai."

"I have another idea, what if we grant the Earth a quasi-independent status," Washu suggested, "with them promising not to colonize any world that Jurai has already laid claim to... it should resolve everything peacefully."

Tsunami considered that.

"There is another factor we have to consider...," Tsunami ventured.

"What's that?"

"We must find out if the Queen is still alive somehow," Tsunami said. "If she is directing the Senshi, it would make negotiations easier. If not, we have to locate the Princess - Heaven's Bearer - and try and work with her."

-----------------

Ranma snuggled under the thin sheets of the futon that was provided by the dojo master's wife. The day had been too much fun as she learned a variation of the 'Way of the Pebble' from Master Togashi. Though there were similarities, there were enough differences to suggest that the form developed independently from Anything Goes.

It was exciting stuff.

_"Tomorrow I'll head for Minoo,"_ she thought as she relaxed on her borrowed bed. _"I'll visit the Asakura Shrine and talk to that Chinese Zen master that's supposed to live there."_

She rolled over, getting more comfortable.

_"It shouldn't take long to find, it's just north of the municipal office in Minoo. He should be able to refine some of the stuff I've picked up."_

_"If I leave Minoo around three," _she thought as she stretched, getting more comfortable. _"I should be in Okayama around six."_

That thought made Ranma smile as she drifted off to dreamland.

---------------

"What do you think of Fire Walker being Tenchi's sparring partner?"

Tsunami pondered this visibly.

"I think, for now, it is safe to assume that it was a coincidence," Tsunami answered. "But we can't rule out the possibility that the Queen survived, discovered our existence somehow and has sent Fire Walker to investigate."

Washu considered in silence before interjecting with a shake to her head, "Coincidence? That would be a hell of a coincidence. I would not even want to factor in the odds..."

"Washu - it is a small universe," Tsunami said pointedly.

Washu stared at the mirror that didn't hold her reflection and blink-blinked.

"Tenchi did well enough to get into Tokyo University," Tsunami explained. "If any of the Senshi made it in, that would increase and narrow the odds down even more."

"I see...," Washu conceded. "Given how Fire Walker was trained in the past, she would have a natural affinity for the combat arts. Tenchi being trained by Yosho also has developed a taste for it... hmmm..." Washu then nodded her head. "Given the circumstances, it would be almost impossible for the two not to meet."

"Exactly," Tsunami agreed. "However we must be on our guard just in case it wasn't a coincidence."

"Should we tell Tenchi?"

Tsunami though a moment before answering. "No. The more that Tenchi feels that Fire Walker is just an ordinary girl, the better. This would give us a future opportunity to observe her if we need to, without raising any suspicions she may have. Besides, we must keep this as secret as possible, not even Yosho must know everything - yet."

Washu thought a moment.

"I'll tell Tenchi that his sparring partner is a very adapt ki user," she suggested. "Nothing out of the ordinary for someone who has practiced high-end martial arts for years."

"Good. That should alleviate any concerns he may have," Tsunami agreed. "We'll keep Yosho in the dark about this for now. What do you think Tenchi feels about his sparring partner?"

"I really can't say for sure," Washu replied. "He claims that they are just friends, but I feel that he has some feelings toward her that he denies even to himself."

"That could be bad if the girls start feeling threatened by her and do something - rash," Tsunami said with great emphasis.

Washu nodded and said, "We're safe for now. Since it is summer break, Tenchi won't be seeing her until school starts up again. That should give us time to try and think of other ways of dealing with the situation."

"I think it is best to wait and see if anything happens. Let the Senshi make the first move," Tsunami suggested. "If they know we are here, they will contact us. If not, that would give us even more time to arrange a political solution."

"I see," Washu said, in a clarifing way. "So we 'wait and see', and keep everything under our hats for now."

Washu looked in the mirror that showed Tsunami as she nodded .

"Anything more would be - 'jumping the gun' as they would say," Tsunami said. "This will also give us time to acquire more information on the political situation back on Jurai. Tonight I will check in with my... sources and get them gathering more information on this Mistress."

"Won't that take at least a couple of weeks to get a message through?" Washu asked.

"I use a mini-stargate for communications," Tsunami answered. "Communicating takes only seconds."

"You still have one of the stargates?" Washu said in a surprised voice.

Tsunami nodded.

"It was a small experimental model that was being transported with me on the ship during the - accident. As with everything else that was aboard," Tsunami explained, "I can still interface with it in my current state. The face opening is only one micron across, enough to send a message through."

"That would make communicating much quicker than the two weeks via subspace transmitters," Washu mused out loud.

"Check with me in two nights time. Use that time to see if you can find if the Queen survived or not. This may not be as serious a situation as we think."

Washu nodded in agreement as Tsunami's image faded from the glass.

"Whatta mess," she commented as she turned away from the mirror and headed back to her lab.

--------------

Unseen by both women, a small dragonfly observed the scene. It cocked its head from one side to the other before flying off into the night on its artificial wings.

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Notes:

Howdy everyone!

I would like to thank everybody who took the time to leave a review. I'm sorry I haven't email a few of the people I been wanting to email, but between home (being a parent is terrifying at times) and work (dealing with customers is terrifying at times), I have been buried.

This will be the last update for the year. Everyone have a happy and safe Holiday and New Years.

Thanks for reading and I'll see y'all in '05.


	25. University Part 6

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

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University part 6

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--------------

Sitting cross legged on the roof of a west bound semi, Ranma watched as the sky changed from blackness to a barely discernible light gray. The contrast brought the outline of Mount Ikoma into view as a massive dark shape against a slightly lighter back drop. High patchy clouds in the sky reflected the ruddy hues of the encroaching dawn. Soon the eastern sky had a slight glow that spread slowly as a thin, red line that heralded the coming sun. From the glowing red line of the dawn, the sky graduated to a deep violet color before fading into the blackness that was the night. Overhead in the sky, stars dimly shined in the twilight.

The air was cool and damp, surprising considering the season. Ranma watched the dark, silhouetted scenery pass by. Details were obscured by the darkness of the morning. Placing herself near the center of the rig, so not to be seen by the few passing motorists, she contemplated her feelings for a certain pigtailed boy.

She could admit now that she was fond of him, but was wary of allowing the feeling to deepen. She had been burned before when it came to matters of the heart.

_"That was a long time ago - I was just a kid at the time," _Ranma reflected on the situation of over two years ago. _"I should be over that, it shouldn't bother me anymore." _

Ranma sighed. Last nights dream bothered her - in more ways than one.

_"I shouldn't be thinking about him that way!"_ she berated herself. _"Stupid friends, putting stupid ideas in my stupid head."_

She sighed, heavily this time, at her own implied stupidity. She had to admit however, last night's dream had been... nice.

_"He's a good friend, that's all. Anything I think beyond that is infatuation," _she thought with conviction.

Ranma laid back, using her backpack to prop herself up at a comfortable incline. This gave her a good view of the sky, which was slowly growing brighter making the already dim stars fainter.

_"Yes, he's kind, smart, handsome, intelligent, sensitive, a good talker, a good listener and a good sparring partner, " _She thought as she listed Tenchi's attributes._ "Most of all, he is a good friend. Thinking about him as anything more would just destroy that friendship. That is something I will not do."_

She turned her head and watched what little of the landscape she could see flash by in the morning twilight.

_"At best, he is a friend," _she once again reaffirmed that thought into her brain,_ "and I will not allow myself to let the romantic notions of my friends skew my perception of him...,"_

She turned her attention to the sun rising higher in the sky, bringing out more details of her surroundings.

_"... at least for now," _she added weakly.

----------------

Washu settled onto her floating, pillow-like chair before her keyboard and contemplated the situation.

_"How to find the Queen," _she mused. _"She was built to be more elusive than Fire Walker - and I wouldn't have found her if the SVS unit wasn't installed in the recorder."_

As she sat and considered different approaches, her train of though keep getting derailed by a square, flashing red light on her floating panel. She sighed.

_"Distractions! All these distractions," _she thought in annoyance. _"The last thing I need is to deal with is more distractions."_

She reached over to dismiss the insistent light when her hand froze in realization.

_"One of my sensors picked up a stray radio signal,"_ she thought, before shrugging. _"It's very weak, probably natural in origin."_

Typing a few keystrokes, she studied the phenomenon.

_"It has to be natural,_" she thought. _"But it's a tight signal, right near the hydrogen band and..."_

Her right eyebrow rose as she continued to filter out the background noise.

_"Something is encoded - right in the...,"_ she stopped and considered what she was seeing on the read outs for a few moments.

_"Camouflage,"_ she concluded. _"Someone was sending an encoded signal hoping to mask it in the natural background."_

Her tiny fingers danced of the keyboard.

_"Wait! What's this?_"

A few more keys punched and the display changed into a schematic that appeared to be a series of dots connected by lines.

_"Hmmm...,"_ she thought while studying her display. _"According to this, the signal was intercepted here and relayed as... a low powered sub-space transmission!"_

Washu brought up another display and studied the recorded transmission.

_"At that signal power it would take almost two years to reach Jurai,"_ she shook her head. _"Tsunami wouldn't use something that slow, giving the urgency of the situation and besides, she said she was using a stargate to communicate."_

She cocked her head to one side and stared at the screen, gleaning information from what she saw.

_"The signal was relayed here,_" she thought as she pointed to empty space, _"and relayed again here,"_ her finger tranced the route, _"before being boosted here," _Washu pointed at one of the moons around Saturn._ "The final boosted signal will take only two weeks to reach Jurai."_

Washu stared at her monitors in contemplation.

_"Someone went to a lot of trouble to try and hide this," _Washu narrowed her eyes. _"But who? And why?"_

----------------

She had been thoroughly enjoying the trip.

Moving toward the edge of the semi she was riding, Ranma spied her exit coming up. Crouching, she leapt from the top of the truck and landed softly on the shoulder of the expressway. Other cars that flew by in the thin morning traffic didn't brake or even notice her unorthodox arrival to Minoo.

After brushing off the accumulation of dust that had gathered on her clothing during the trip, she removed a well worn map from her backpack. Turning the map in her hands, this way and that, she looked about her. After matching up the symbols representing landmarks and roads with those in existence, she smiled confidently that she would have no problems finding her way.

_"If I follow this road north, it will merge with another and continue north,"_ she thought as she got her bearings. _"Keep on that until I see the Municipal Building, that will be the first landmark I run across."_

She began to walk toward the heart of Minoo as she continued to study the map.

_"Keep on that until it intersects road number nine," _she thought as she tracked the lines mentally. "_Then I take that west and the Asakura Shrine should be between the Hankyu-Minoo Line and the river."_

Ranma smiled as she took in every detail of her surroundings. As she walked along the shoulder of the road, with an occasional car passing her on her right, she eyed the wooded forest off to her left. Visibility had deteriorated from the clarity that was the dawn, being replaced by a thin fog that blanketed everything into a low contrast gray. The trees nearest the road were clearly visible through the morning light, but the forest beyond was shrouded in gray darkness.

_"Kinda creepy," _she thought as she continued her trek, taking her time for once, enjoying the moment.

Ten minutes into her hike, the prickly sensation of being watched seeped into her consciousness. Stopping to identify the source of her discomfort, Ranma cocked her head from one side to the other.

_"The woods," _she thought. _"Whatever is watching me, is in the woods."_

She no sooner completed that thought, when the rustling of the underbrush was clearly heard, breaking the natural stillness of the morning. With her curiosity roused, Ranma stepped off the shoulder of the road and crossed the strip of grass that separated the road surface from the forest. There was a slight incline just at the border between the knee high grass and where the trees started. There Ranma stopped and listened.

Standing quietly at the edge of the woods, Ranma strained her ears for any sound of movement. She thought about extending her ki senses, but didn't because she didn't feel that there were any threats. After a moment, Ranma heard it: the soft crunching of footfalls on the foliage.

The sound was coming from just beyond what she could see clearly. The fog appeared to be thicker in the mass of trees than it was on the road. Looking into the woods, Ranma strained to see what was hidden. She sighed. She didn't feel that she was endangered in any way, but her curiosity was driving her to discover what was hidden in the fog.

Ranma sighed again and started to turn when she saw something.

Movement.

It was unclear at first what she was looking at. What she was seeing though was indistinct, crouched and definitely human-shaped things that were moving between the trees. The fog and the trees interfered with the view and Ranma struggled to make out what she was looking at. Ranma's eyes narrowed.

_"Wish I brought a flashlight,"_ she thought. _"Oh well, plan B._"

Using her ki, she formed a small ball in the cup of her hand that illuminated the area of the woods in front of her. Much to Ranma's disappointment, the light from her hand backscattered through the fog making everything even harder to see. The unexpected light did however, frighten whatever was in the woods and the small hairy figures dashed away from her and through the trees.

_"What the-,"_ her thoughts began, only to be cut off by a screeching sound as one of the figures popped up, ten feet to her right. It froze and looked at Ranma.

It was small, only about half as tall as Ranma at the most and had reddish brown hair that covered its small body. Their eyes locked for the briefest of seconds before the small, hairy thing screeched once more and joined its comrades, disappearing into the deeper parts of the forest.

_"Macaque,"_ Ranma thought as the monkey faded back into the woods. With a sigh of relief, she made her way back to the shoulder of the road and continued her hike into Minoo.

In spite of the slight delay, Ranma made good time as she met up with the northward heading road. Setting a strong pace, she looked at the sky as she went along the judge the time, _"I hope I don't get there too early. Wouldn't want to wake anyone."_

------------

Tenchi swept the path that led to the residence of its brown, dead leaves. The house was a nice large, three story structure. Looking down from above, the house was an 'L' shaped structure with three stories on the long way and two on the short. There was a connecting greenhouse on the short edge and on top of the second story on the long edge was a railed deck that wrapped part-way around the second floor that gave a commanding view of the nearby lake and surrounding mountains.

The path that Tenchi was sweeping went around the edge of the lake and connected to the gate that greeted any visitors. There was also a direct path to the residence via bridge that crossed the narrow stretch of the lake and it connected near the door. On the lake side of the residence was a boat dock that jutted out toward the body of the lake.

Tenchi concentrated on his chores.

It was a mindless task and afforded much time for the young man to think. The girls had been surprisingly well behaved since he got home. Rarely did they ask him about his sparring partner. When they did try to ask though, it was in such an obvious, round about way that he found it amusing.

His sparring partner.

Tenchi smiled when he thought of Ranma. He found that he really missed just talking to her. She took the time to listen and didn't expect anything in return.

Well, maybe outside of a good sparring match...

... and dancing...

... and talking...

_"Man, I got it bad,"_ he berated himself with a shake of his head. _"Ranma's just a nice, ordinary girl. She doesn't need to be dragged into my crazy life."_

He paused in thought, recalling what Washu said that morning about the readings from the 'Pocket Jurai Power and Aura Recorder with Handy Built-in Pen Light and Toothpick'. According to her, it proved that Ranma was a very skilled martial artist with a very high ki, but other than that, she was well within human range.

_"Well, a nice, ordinary, martial artist that could could throw ki balls if she wanted," _he mentally added._ "But still an ordinary girl!"_

Sigh

_"A nice, beautiful, wonderful, ordinary girl."_

Tenchi sighed again.

_"It's best that I think of her only as a friend,"_ Tenchi sighed yet again. _"After all, it would never work out."_

He suddenly blink-blinked at the realization that he even considered having something 'work out' with another person. Tenchi sighed and resumed his chore.

_"She would probably think my life is too weird to put up with if she ever found out the truth,"_ he thought, slightly depressed.

As he resumed his sweeping, he idly spied Washu wandering around the path that bordered the lake and woods. Occasionally she would look at something in her hand, then into the woods. Momentarily distracted by glancing down to see where he was sweeping, when Tenchi eyes rose to take in his surroundings again, Washu had disappeared.

--------------

"You are a very quick student," the old man commented.

"Thank you, Master Asahi," Ranma said with a respectful bow. "I have studied many different martial arts since I could walk. Sometimes getting them all to work together - no matter how much I have practiced - is challenging."

The elderly man examined Ranma with his good eye, a crystal blue one. The other eye was blind, covered with a milky film that prevented its use. He was hunched over with age, but still stood just slightly taller than Ranma. He leaned on a staff that was two feet taller than he was, hanging on to it with one hand while stroking his short beard with the other. The only other facial hair he had were two bushy white eyebrows that looked like wild cotton balls attached to his forehead. The red and white robes he wore dragged the floor and trailed behind him as well as hid his feet.

"It is very hard to truly master all the forms you have practiced in," he spoke in a soft, sage-like manner. "Yet for one so young, you have done a remarkable job."

"Thank you," Ranma said while bowing, feeling awkward at the compliment.

Silence feel between the two.

"As far as your skill is concerned, it far exceeds your age," the old man said quizically. "So, what brings you here to me?"

"I have concerns with my... ki," Ranma said somewhat evasively.

"Your ki?" the nearly blind man asked. "You can access ki at your age? I must see a demonstration."

"I'd be happy to, if you could help me with a problem that I have with it."

"What is the matter with your ki?"

"I-it's a little hard to explain," Ranma said. "It's like... I'm afraid it will get out of hand."

Master Asahi cocked his head as he studied the redhead.

"Is your fear that great?" he asked.

Ranma nodded her head.

"Come this way then," the monk said. "We have much to discuss."

-------------

Washu strolled away from the house.

If it wasn't for Tsunami's insistence about the need for secrecy, she would have had Ryoko accompany her. As it was, she was alone in her investigation and being alone made her feel nervous. Despite that, Washu had to find out the origin of the transmission.

As she walked along, she occasionally glanced at a small pen-like device that floated just above the palm of her hand. As she moved the device would point one way then then another. Following the pointer, she made her way deeper into the surrounding forest, stepping over the underbrush when she could and making detours when she couldn't.

After forty five minutes of maneuvering in the woods, a light at the back end of the pointer started pulsing.

_"I'm getting closer to whatever sent the signal,"_ Washu thought as she stepped over a tree root.

_"Triangulating with the deep space sensors and calculating the area of the transmission point was simple,"_ her thoughts continued as she wore a frown while she ducking under a low branch, _"making my way through this jungle is another matter."_

The light at the end of the pointer started flashing in quick succession as she stepped over and under natural obstacles. Finally her trek ended along a trail, maybe made by deer or some other animal, that was dominated by the tall, surrounding trees.

Washu studied the scene. The narrow trail weaved in and out between the trees, the foliage of thick ferns and thin tall grasses that managed to survive in the shadows of the canopy overhead grew in splotches here and there. The remaining ground was padded in a thick carpet of leaves. The only sound was the sound of nature - and the beating of her heart.

In her surroundings, nothing stood out.

Washu sighed.

Pocketing the pointer, she removed another device the size of a deck of cards and unfolded it. Pushing a few keys, she watched the small heads up display come to life and started turning as the device cycled and transmitted through various bandwidths and reported the 'bounce-back' from the surroundings.

_"The transmission was sent from around here," _she thought with some frustration. _"It has to be here someplace."_

She continued her sweep. The readout suddenly blinked wildly.

_"It's here! I'm almost on top of it," _she exclaimed to herself.

Looking through the heads up display, Washu followed the signal until it led her to a long fallen tree that was resting against its neighbor. The result was a natural, moss covered 'A' frame that had tall ferns growing about the base. Washu continued to stare through the heads up display and tracked the echoed signal. Motioning about with her hand she located it.

Washu lowered the signal echoing device and studied the transmitter without the distractions of the display. It was very unassuming, so unassuming that it would have been easily missed if it weren't for the equipment she was using. Strung up between the branch of the standing tree and where the fallen one leaned into the branch was a spider's web.

But no ordinary spider web.

_"Fantastic," _Washu thought as extracted another instrument from her pocket, this one resembling a child's toy telescope. Raising the tube to her eye, she studied the construction of the spider web.

_"Micro filament, super conductive and organic in nature. An excellent antenna,"_ Washu mentally listed what she could figure out from her extremely close inspection of the web. _"This is the antenna, where is the transmitter?"_

As if on cue, a medium sized spider made its way toward the center of the web. Washu redirected the tube-like device and aimed it at the spider as it moved.

_"There it is! What a work of art. Whoever built these knew what they were doing," _she thought with a outward cackle.

Washu's attention was drawn away from her find by an insistent beeping from her pocket. Lowering the scope, she patted herself down until she found the demanding device. Removing the card deck sized device from her pocket, she opened it and scanned the area.

_"There's an energy build up coming from the transmitter,"_ Washu thought looking at the readouts. _"It's not communicating anything - the energy is building up to a level-"_

Realizing what was going on, Washu made a rapid retreat away from the web. She backed away and made it ten feet before tripping over a tree root and landing on her rear.

That was when the spider and its web flared once in a dramatic way and reduced themselves to vapor.

"It detected my probing and self destructed," Washu said aloud. _"Whoever was spying on us didn't want us to know who they were."_

Picking herself off the ground, Washu dusted her small frame off. She scanned the area for any residual traces of the transmitter, after finding none, she packed her gear safely away in her pockets. With one last scan for anything useful, Washu turned and headed for home. She had a lot of thinking to do on the way back.

--------------

Ranma had finished her demonstrating her ki abilities to the old monk who watched impassively. When she was finished, he stood there, deep in thought, stroking his chin. He cocked his head to one side eliciting a loud crack.

"You are the most ki adapt martial artist I've seen in quite some time," he proclaimed seriously. "Considering how long I've lived, that means something. You have great control and reserves."

He walked over to her in a pace only the elderly can achieve.

"You are troubled though. A deep unrest lurks within you," Asahi stated. "I can tell that you are a person who bears a great burden. A burden that you feel sometimes threatens to overwhelm you."

He then motioned her to follow and he lead her into a small open room that overlooked the temple gardens. There they sat in silence for a few minutes as the old monk stroked his chin.

"Tell me," he continued. "Do you train to carry that burden better or do you train to forget you have it?"

Ranma started to answer immediately, but was halted by Asahi holding his hand up.

"No. Do not answer right away. Contemplate before answering."

Ranma stared at the old monk. She considered the question carefully as she organized her thoughts and feelings.

_"It's true,"_ she admitted to herself. _"The Senshi power is like grabbing hold of a fire hose running at full blast. I can hold it, but if I make one slight mistake - things can go very wrong, very fast."_

Ranma sighed while looking down.

_"After all that work with Happosai,"_ Ranma thought. _"I should have better control over the power that creeps into my 'normal' state. I still have to watch it closely and carefully. I have perfect control to a certain limit, after that it tries to kick in automatically. The last time I slipped was when I sparred with Tenchi before summer break and the nightmare I had over it wasn't pleasant."_

She shuddered at the memory.

_"I still have nightmares," _she reminded herself,_ "but they don't come as frequently as they use to."_

She played with her fingers in her lap as she continued to fuss over the question.

_"I slipped for not even a half a second, but I could do a lot of damage in less time than that," _she thought as she stopped playing with her fingers and folded her hands together.

_"I do train to handle and control the power better," _she thought unhappily. _"And it has helped me handle it better. But when I'm training in martial arts I can forget about even having all that power and feel free from it..."_

Ranma let another sigh escape her.

_"... God, I hate being a slave to it."_

She frowned at that thought. Blink-blinking she came out of her thoughts and faced the elderly man who was waiting patiently for her to answer.

"A little of both... I guess," Ranma admitted.

"What would make it easier for you?" he asked.

Ranma answered immediately.

"Control," she said firmly. "If I had absolute control over my... ki."

The elderly man barked out a laugh.

"There is no such thing as absolute control. No one can control their fate, or everyone's response to the world around them."

He leaned forward slightly towards Ranma.

"The only way one could have absolute control, was if they were a universe to themselves. The best anyone can hope for is acceptance of their situation and learning how to live with it."

"But I hate not being in control of myself," Ranma complained. "And if I lose control, a lot of people could be hurt."

"Whether you accept this fact or not, it doesn't change the reality of it," Asahi said sternly. "You are responsible for your actions, you are responsible for what you do or don't do. To try and blame your abilities for your short comings is cowardly."

"You don't know what you're talking about!" Ranma objected - loudly. "I have a real problem. People could die if I screw up! Do you know how much that scares the hell out of me?!"

Silence fell between the pair.

"Why not seal this knowledge away?" the monk suggested. "If it truly so terrible for you to bear, then seal it away in your mind."

"I can't," Ranma said tiredly. "It's part of... an obligation... a duty I have."

The old man looked at the sky in contemplation. The silence grew between them, that Ranma felt unsure about being there.

"Must you have the whole?" Asahi suddenly asked, startling Ranma.

"Huh?"

The old man sighed.

"Must you have the whole?" He asked again before explaining, "When faced with carrying a heavy load, do you try to carry it all at once or do you break into smaller loads to carry?"

"Umm... I would break it up?" Ranma ventured.

"Try sealing away parts of your skill that are too much for you to bear. They would still be there for you to draw on if needed, but not as easily as before."

"How?"

"I have some copies of some old scrolls I can lend you," he said with a smile. "It was written by a high ki user, such as yourself, five hundred years ago. He too feared that his great power would corrupt him. His fear drove him to make it his life's work on how to compartmentalize his techniques so that he could draw from a select amount. Sort of like a regulator or limiter that you impose upon yourself."

"You'd let me have these?"

"Of course, "Asahi smiled. "These are copies that have been around for quite some time now. It's like they were waiting for the right person to come along."

--------------

Washu set up a mirrored face communications instrument and with a touch to its smooth surface, powered it on. She would use this to directly talk with Tsunami instead of having to rely on the presence of Sasami. It used a great deal of power, but it got the job done.

Also by talking to Tsunami in her lab, she could secure it against eavesdroppers.

Soon, the ghostly image of Tsunami filled the mirror.

"I have an update on some irregularities in the political situation on Jurai," Tsunami said in a very serious tone. "It isn't good."

"Why? What happened?" asked slightly alarmed.

"It seems that over the past two years, certain reforms have been passed in the Lower Houses. Reforms that have slowly eroded the ruling authority of the Emperor.'

"Eroded? How?"

"The supposed point of the reforms was to strengthen the security of the Empire," Tsunami said. "Instead all it did was give birth to a massive bureaucracy."

Washu stared dumbly at Tsunami.

"You know I never liked politics," Washu said, slightly exasperated. "Why is this such a bad thing?"

"Entropy," Tsunami stated.

"Entropy?" Washu paused in questioned. She cocked her head, "Thermodynamics?

"Political entropy," Tsunami clarified. "Think of it as the King's power being spread out over the many divisions that actually perform the functions of the government, ultimately leaving the King with diminished power."

Washu weighed that bit of information.

"With a weakened central authority and the governing power being spread out over a larger political system, the King's authority would fade eventually into an inert uniformity over the political spectrum." Washu drew the comparison. "This would leave the Empire in an extremely vulnerable situation," she added as a whispered.

"Exactly."

Silence fell between the two as Washu contemplated the state of the Empire.

"Surely Emperor Azusa would-," Washu started.

"The Empire has become bogged down in its own growing bureaucracy," Tsunami interrupted. "The power has shifted slowly away from the King and onto people who - 'push pencils', I think is the term."

"How about Queen Funaho? Surely she sees what is happening," Washu pointed out.

Tsunami nodded, "Yes she is aware of what is happening and has been doing everything in her power to stop it. The problem is that Zarkov, under the direction of The Mistress I'm sure, has been boggling the committees she heads under a mountain of nonexistent problems."

"Nonexistent problems?" Washu questioned.

"Yes. Off worlders, other planetary governments that border the Empire, minor interplanetary conflicts within the Empire that are blown out of proportion... the list of potential minor incidents that could be exaggerated and used are endless. The results are that Queen Funaho has been busy putting on a bunch of small fires and hasn't had the opportunity to spend much time on the real problem."

"What about Queen Misaki?"

"She is the head of the Juraian Royal Guard, so she has been tied up with investigating 'border skirmishes' that, I believe, don't really exist."

Washu was silent in contemplation, she could relate to the problem the Royal house was going through. "Distractions," she concluded. "All these distractions are tying up the people in charge while their power is being sapped away."

Tsunami nodded.

"What do you think they're up to? They wouldn't have gone through this much trouble and not have some plan," Washu point out. "Even then, they should know that Emperor Azusa would not give up the throne."

"Knowing Zarkov, he will probably use this to consolidate power under him... or at least get the other upper Houses to support him in strengthening the central government."

"He creates the problem, then offers a solution," Washu said. "Do you think this mystery woman is behind all this?"

"Yes," Tsunami said. "I believe she is the driving force behind all of this."

"Who is she?"

"I haven't been able to find any information about her anywhere. As far as any information in the Imperial Computer System, she doesn't exist."

"Could she be another surviving Tech-master? Like us and Zarkov?" Washu suggested.

"I don't know," Tsunami answered tiredly. "Outside of you, me, Zarkov and Roshi, I haven't heard or kept track of the others in a least ten thousand years. She could be one, there's just not enough information to guess."

Washu pondered the different facets of the problem.

"We must account for everyone," Washu said. "Do you think you can do it?"

"I'll get my resources on it," Tsunami nodded as she responded.

Silence fell between the two.

"What can we do?" Washu finally asked. "There must be something we can do to avert disaster."

Tsunami thought a moment before answering. "We must strengthen and re-centralize the ruling authority. The problem is I'm sure that Zarkov has the same idea, but under his rule."

"What do you suggest?"

"For now, we have time to collect more information," Tsunami answered distractedly. "If we act in haste, it may cause more problems that it solves. I am expecting another report tonight. Let's see if that turns up anything. This could be messy, you know."

"Great," Washu said bitterly. "All this on top of the Senshi being back. This keeps getting better and better."

"About the Senshi, have you found out if the Queen is around or not?"

"No... I got distracted by another matter that may be just as important," Washu said. "And it probably has something to do with the situation back on Jurai."

"Oh?" Tsunami questioned. "What would that be?"

"About your sources," Washu asked. "Do you have any around here?"

Tsunami looked at Washu with an appraising look.

"No," she said. "Since I'm here I didn't think it would be necessary. Why?"

"After our discussion the other night," Washu began, "I intercepted a radio signal that was designed to be hidden in the natural background radio noise. It was converted to a subspace transmission and boosted with enough power to reach Jurai in about two weeks."

"Did you manage to decode or trace it?"

"I'm still working on fully decoding it, but so far it looks like a recording of our talk the other night. When I trace the source of the signal from this end, it led to a spider-web in the woods. It self destructed before I had the chance to do a thorough analysis of it."

"A spider-web? Self destruct?" Tsunami questioned. "So we have been spied on," she commented, not missing the irony of the situation.

"That much is obvious," Washu said with a nod. "And from what you told me, it won't be much of a guess by who."

--------------

Ranma took the train again.

Ranma pondered the problem of Tenchi, not that Tenchi was a problem, but rather her - reoccurring uncomfortable feelings toward him. At first it was like a business transaction or a trade. Each needed someone to spar with and each filled the bill for the other.

Then they, with the clandestine help of their roommates, started spending more and more time together. Ranma had already come to the conclusion that what she felt was probably infatuation.

_"Besides,"_ she though depressingly._ "He has enough problems with women and doesn't need me added to the mix. He doesn't deserve to be dragged in my screwed up life."_

The wind created from the train's movement whipped her long braided pigtail behind her as she laid back to soak up some of the sun that peaked through the partially cloudy sky. She would occasionally turn her head to check on the train's progress with some of the landmarks from the map she was carrying.

_"Soon,"_ she thought._ "Almost there."_

Raising herself into a seated position, Ranma examined the landscape against the worn map.

_"That must be Kagato Station over there," _she commented to herself as she spied the station on the opposite side of a highway and another set of tracks. Ranma's train, being a separate track, kept going. _"The other tracks should go south soon after and a river should be coming..."_

As if on cue, the tracks gave way to a trestle and soon Ranma found herself crossing a river that meandered through the semi-urban scene. Ranma smiled.

_"This must be the Yoshi River,"_ Ranma thought as she studied the wind whipped map. _"That means the next landmark will be the Ashahi River... the tracks should go south from there and the station should be near that."_

Ranma smiled as the last landmark was met and passed and the train headed south, following its tracks.

_"Alright, that means the next stop is the Okayama station,"_ she thought excitedly.

Gathering her pack and shouldering it, Ranma watched as the line crossed through and over many neighborhoods, the kind she found back home in Tokyo. The suburban landscape quickly gave way to an urban one as the scene became more and more crowded with buildings, roads and the other trappings of a typical urban setting. The tracks had eventually crossed over and paralleled another set of tracks, this time on the north side. Ranma swung her head around, taking in the sights of Okayama while the train slowed as it neared the station.

_"This is not what I was expecting,"_ Ranma though to herself. _"But then again, Tenchi said he lived some distance from the city itself. Now if I can manage to get hold of a phone book, I'll be in business."_

The loud howl of a large, wounded animal was clearly heard through the combination of train and city noise.

Ranma held her stomach. _"After I get something to eat."_

---------------

Washu sighed. This was not want she wanted to be doing.

"The question is still stands: What do we do?"

Tsunami pondered the question before answering.

"We must have a new re-centralized government. The best way is to have the King step down for his successor. This has been expected for over two thousand years. With a new King, people would be drawn together and we can then deal with the bureaucracy - by eliminating it in its current form and establishing a smaller, easier to manage one. We need someone who could pull the other Houses back into the fold. If we can get Yosho take the throne-"

"Something that he is adamantly against," Washu interjected. "I don't think there is anything that would drag Yosho to the throne."

"True," Tsunami agreed, "and a reluctant King would be more damaging that a tired one."

"That leaves Tenchi," Washu said, "and he is not ready yet."

Tsunami nodded her agreement.

"Couldn't you interfere?" Washu suggested. "Stop this from happening? I believe you did something like that five thousand years ago, didn't you?"

Tsunami shook her head. "No. My power is not what it was then, especially now that I'm bonded to Sasami. The binding keeps me more or less anchored."

"You let sentiment get the best of you on that," Washu quipped.

"And you never let sentiment get to you?" Tsunami shot back. "Remember what happened when you tried to 'live a normal life'? Didn't work out so well did it?"

Washu faced turned red in anger.

"I was in love!" she defended. "I didn't think that they would take him and our child away."

Silence fell uncomfortably between them.

"I'm sorry..." Tsunami said quietly. "But you have to realize it was the only way to save her."

Silence resumed.

Washu nodded her head.

"So our hope is Tenchi - how much time do you think we have?" she asked, bringing the conversation back to the subject.

"It will take two weeks for the signal to reach Jurai," Tsunami thought aloud. "Four to six weeks by ship from Jurai to Earth... if they intend to come here... maybe add a month for them to make any plans..." Tsunami fell into silent contemplation for a moment before voicing her opinion. "One month and a half at the earliest, maybe three months if we're lucky."

"If they don't come here, what do you think they'll do?"

Tsunami thought a moment. "Probably cause some kind of trouble on the home front - I really don't know. Maybe it would be better if we convince everyone to take a trip to Jurai, that way we can be close to the action if needed."

"We'll have to tell Yosho what's going on," Washu stated. "If we impress upon him the seriousness of the situation, he would have to act."

Tsunami nodded.

"The only advantage we have now is that we can get our intelligence faster than the opposition," Tsunami pointed out. "We must use that to our advantage as much as we can. However, if word gets out to the other Houses about the Senshi, all bets are off."

Washu blink-blinked.

"Why?"

"Because the Senshi are now the wild cards in all of this. If you recall our conversation from the other night, all scenarios are valid, plus a few more."

"What do you mean?"

Tsunami explained. "The Senshi were considered royalty, remember? And Jurai is descended from the Sol System."

"Yes," Washu nodded. "I recall, what other scenarios are you talking about?"

"Zarkov could try to build the Senshi up as a threat to the Empire and gain support that way," Tsunami said. "He'll try and convince the other Houses that the Senshi are a threat to the security of the Empire. By making the Senshi out as villains or aggressors, he could push for an attack, a first strike, without truly realizing what he is dealing with."

"How would that benefit him?" Washu asked. God she hated politics.

"People often rally for a cause, especially if they feel if it's for self preservation."

Silence.

"And what about this 'Mistress'?" Washu reminded Tsunami. "She is the one really calling the shots. We need to find out more about her."

Tsunami nodded, "I have my sources digging around, I should, hopefully, have a more detailed report by tomorrow."

"There is someone else we need to consider also," Washu said. "Wind Walker."

Tsunami eyes widened.

"I forgot about her..."

--------------

Elsewhere...

Sailor Pluto studied the changes in the time stream.

_"Something odd is happening here," _she mused._ "I've never seen readings quite like this before."_

Making adjustments here and there, the time stream refused to define itself.

Her brow furrowed.

_"The time lines are diverging into three separate, but equal paths,"_ she thought. _"With the multiple deviations that exist in each timeline, it makes it difficult to predict what will happen."_

She pouted.

_"I'll keep trying to sort this out and see if a dominant path is known before I recommend a course of action."_

Looking at her watch, a gift from an admirer, she noted the time.

_"The Scout meeting is tomorrow,"_ she thought. _"I'll bring this up then and use the time to try and figure out what is going on."_

She continued with her task of trying to determine the future.

---------------

"Man that was good," Ranma thought as she patted her stomach, making her way through the crowded streets of Okayama. "It's been a long time since I had okonomiyaki."

As she walked, Ranma took in her surroundings.

_"This is not what I imagined,"_ she thought as she looked at the surrounding buildings. _"This looks like parts of Tokyo I've passed through."_

Ranma had imagined a more rural setting for Okayama and was slightly disappointed that it turned out to be a fairly sizable city.

"Well, I better find a phone book and see if I can find where the Masaki shrine is."

Seeing she was near a pair of high schools, Ranma got her bearings, and walked west toward Mount Yasaka until she encountered Bizenmikado Station. Upon entering the crowded station, she made her way over to a row of green public phones that lined one wall. There she finally found an elusive phone book.

"Let's where is it...," Ranma thought as she leafed through the book. "Ah! here it is Masaki Shrine. Great, now I need a good map of the area."

Scoping out the station, Ranma spotted a map of Okayama mounted on the opposite wall. Making her way over to it, she kept a wary eye out for gropers. Soon she found herself before a disappointing undetailed map, no better than the one she was carrying.

_"This isn't any help,"_ she thought disdainfully before the obvious hit her. "_I know! I'll call for directions."_

Going off to the side of the room, Ranma dug through her pack and pulled out her cell phone.

_"Damn! Forgot to charge it,_" she thought disdainfully. _"I'll have to use a pay phone."_

Making her way back to the phones, she fished round in her pocket for some change.

_"Dammit!"_ she cursed to herself. _"Some bills, but just barely enough change."_

-------------------

A phone rang.

Then rang again.

In the house, near the kitchen, the phone rang insistently.

A girl poked her head out of the doorway leading to the kitchen. She appeared to be around the age of ten to twelve with light blue hair done up in two long ponytails on either side of her head and wearing an apron with a stylized carrot on it. Sasami entered the hallway and traversed the distance between the door of the kitchen to the bureau by the front door, where everyone kept their shoes.

Reaching up to where the phone rested, she picked up the receiver and was greeted by the howl and crackle of a horrible connection. Regardless of the interference, she answered the call cheerfully.

"Masaki residence, Sasami speaking. How may I help you?"

_"Is -garble- Masaki Shrine?" _a faint, indistinct voice asked through the rough static.

"This is the Masaki Shrine. How may I help you?" Sasami asked, still in her cheery way, despite the annoying garbage on the line.

_"-garble, garble- do I -howl- there?"_

Sasami's brow furrowed, "I'm sorry sir, but the connection is very bad. I can barely understand you. Are you asking how to get here?"

_" Yes, and I'm a -garble- How do I get there? You sound okay -howl- this end."_

"Well," Sasami smiled, at least the person on the other end could hear her. "To get here you take... "

------------------

At the station, Ranma wrote down the instructions to the Masaki Shrine. It was located some distance from the city proper and would probably take anyone else a couple of hours to get there. Ranma figured it would take her an hour.

"Thank you so very much," Ranma said into the phone. "What? I said thank you. Oh, and tell Tenchi that Ranma will be there soon."

Ranma listened through the earpiece.

"Yes, Ranma. Tell Tenchi that Ranma will be there in a few hours."

Pause.

"Yes. Ranma. Thank you. Bye."

Ranma hung up the phone and sighed.

_"Geez, it must have been some bad connection," _she thought. _"Too bad I didn't have enough change to call back to get a better one."_

Making her way back to the map, she got her bearings from the instructions on how to get to the shrine and matched up some landmarks.

_"He does live quite away out there," _she thought. _"Better get me a snack to hold me over."_

------------------

Sasami was making her way back into the kitchen when she met Ryoko.

"Hello Ryoko," she said happily with a bow. "Could you do me a favor?"

Ryoko, a creation of her 'mother' Washu, couldn't say no to Sasami and the natural puppy dog aura that seemed to surround her.

"Sure. What do you need?"

"I need you to deliver a message to Lord Tenchi," Sasami explained. "I would do it myself, but I'll be starting dinner soon."

"Okay," Ryoko smiled. "What do you need me to tell him?"

"Please tell Lord Tenchi that Ranma is on his way and should be arriving around dinner time."

"Right. Ranma, coming, be here at dinner time. Got it."

"Thank you," Sasami said with a disarming smile.

--------------

It was a short search. All Ryoko had to do was follow the sounds of violence on the shrine grounds to where Tenchi and his grandfather Yosho were practicing. She stood and watched Tenchi as he gracefully evaded a strike from his grandfather and used the momentum from the dodge to counter attack.

Yosho was being hard pressed by the younger man.

"You've gotten much better," Yosho commented as he blocked a blow.

Tenchi didn't reply as he blocked another blow, smiled and went on the offensive. Pushing Yosho's bokken back with his, Tenchi then lowered himself unexpectedly and tried for a leg sweep. Yosho seemed to be expecting this and merely jumped back to evade Tenchi's leg as it cut through the space where he was standing.

What Yosho didn't expect was for Tenchi to push off with his other leg and leap as high as he did. Yosho brought up his blade to block the downward thrust of Tenchi's blade. While the counter was well timed, it was too little to stop the momentum of the attack.

Yosho soon found himself flat on his back with the blade of Tenchi's bokken pressing against one side of his neck. The tip of his own blade was embedded in the ground and the guard of Tenchi's blade was forced against the edge of his weapon and kept it immobilized.

Against his neck.

Both blades formed a scissor with Yosho's head between the 'V'.

He had lost.

Spectacularly.

He blink-blinked at the younger man atop him.

"Where did you learn such a move?" he asked as his grandson got off him.

"From my sparring partner at school," Tenchi replied while helping the older man to his feet. "She nailed me a few times with it before I got wise and tried it on her."

On the sidelines, the word 'her' grated of Ryoko's nerves, but she remained silent.

"And did it work?" Yosho asked.

"No," Tenchi replied while he shook his head. "She had a counter for it, but I did manage to tag her before she could recover fully."

Yosho nodded.

"I must meet this sparring partner of yours sometime. You think she would consent to a match with me?"

Tenchi smiled.

"I know she would," Tenchi said. "I told her all about how you trained me and she would **love** a match with you."

Yosho nodded as he picked a towel from the grass and wiped the sweat from his brow. Tenchi made his way over to where he had placed his own towel. Ryoko took the opportunity to address him.

"Sasami asked me to pass a message onto you," Ryoko said.

"Okay," Tenchi said distractedly while picking up his neatly folded towel from the ground. "What is it?"

Ryoko stared at Tenchi. She sighed. Tenchi's stand-offish manner was beginning to grate on her nerves, almost as much as this mysterious 'sparring partner' he had picked up at school. However she put those feelings on the back burner and concentrated on the task at hand. But she had to admit to herself that she understood Tenchi's reason's for treating her and Ayeka that way he had been.

Although she understood, it didn't make her feel any better.

"She said that Ranma called and that he'll be here in a few hours."

Tenchi stopped with towel in hand and thought about what Ryoko said. A smile slowly crossed his face.

"Thanks," he said happily as he towel himself off. "Please tell Sasami we'll have a guest for the night."

Ryoko's slightly irritated feeling at Tenchi's attitude toward her faded completely as he smiled.

_"It's been awhile since he smiled like that,"_ she thought, _"Maybe his friend will help lighten his mood a bit."_

-------------

_"Oh... my...,"_ was all Ranma thought as she approached a shop unlike any she had ever seen, even in Tokyo.

It was a small mom and pop place on the ground floor of a high-rise collection of shops and stores. It was wedged between the openings for a shoe store and a Universal Express shipping. What drew Ranma to the place was two oversized Pocky boxes that graced the space over the entrance.

Ranma opened the door and stopped looking about the long, narrow shop. Her eyes rested on the racks that lined both walls of the shop.

It was heaven.

_"Pocky,"_ she hummed to herself, with a slight trail of drool from the corner of her mouth. "_Mmmm... Pocky."_

"May I help you, young lady?" a woman in her fifties asked from behind a narrow counter, bringing Ranma out of her state.

"Um... yeah," she responded, blushing slightly. "You wouldn't happen to have Almond Crush Pocky?"

"Why of course we do," the older women replied with a smile. "We carry every flavor of Pocky they make."

"Every... flavor...?" Ranma asked lightly stunned from the implied sugar rush.

"Yes, please do have a look around," the proprietor said with a wave of her hand. "You may find something new you might want to try."

Ranma made her way deeper into the tiny market, eyeing the wares on the racks.

_"Chocolate... Strawberry... Milk... Marble Chocolate... here it is, Almond Crush! Wait what's this? Coconut?! Mmmm. And Pudding! They have Pudding Pocky!"_

With box in hand, Ranma rummaged through her money belt and the few bills that remained to get home on.

_"Oh man," _she thought sadly. _"So much Pocky, so little money."_

Looking around at the multitude of snacks surrounding her, she sighed.

_"I'll just have to settle for two small boxes," _she pouted to herself.

Paying for her selections, one Almond Crush and one Coconut, Ranma took to the street and headed in the general direction of where the Masaki shrine laid.

---------------

Tenchi thanked Ryoko for delivering the message and watched impassively as she strolled away.

_"It will be good to see Ranma again,"_ he thought to himself as he finished wiping the sweat from his face with the towel. _"I hope she'll..."_

Tenchi's train of thought was derailed as the actual situation intruded into his thought processes.

_"Ranma. Coming. Here. Today." _Tenchi's eyes widened._ "Oh shit!"_

"Is something wrong Tenchi? You seem alarmed by something," his grandfather asked noticing Tenchi's sudden change in mood. "Is this Ranma not a friend of yours?"

Tenchi nodded as he turned to his grandfather.

"Grandfather, Ranma's coming. Here. In a few hours."

Yosho nodded. "Yes I know. Is there something the matter with him?"

Tenchi looked at Yosho in the eyes and understood where he failed to see the problem.

"Ranma is my sparring partner from school. He's a she."

Yosho eyes widened at that, then he spoke with great authority.

"Family meeting. Now."

---------------

Ryoko fidgeted where she sat on the rafters. The last time Yosho called a family meeting was when he backed Tenchi on 'lowering the boom' on her and Ayeka. It wasn't their fault that the house got leveled for the fourth time in six months. It was an accident.

She had to admit that things were more peaceful since, if not less tense between her and Ayeka.

Most of the residents of the shrine were gathered in the living room, all eyes on Tenchi's grandfather. He wore a serious expression that the others in the room knew meant that he was about to say was important. The older looking man looked around the room, taking a mental roll of who was there and who wasn't.

Everyone was there with the exception of two people. Sasami was in the kitchen, turning down the burners before joining them. The other's whereabouts were unknown.

"Where's Washu?" he asked.

"The last time I saw her was this morning," Tenchi said. "When I was sweeping the path to the house. She was wandering around the edge of the woods."

"Where is she now?" Yosho asked.

Tenchi replied with a shrug.

"I think she is in her lab," Ryoko offered up. "That was the last time I saw her."

"Can you go check and bring her here? This is important," Yosho asked in a no nonsense manner.

Ryoko exited the room as Sasami entered.

"I'll be just a moment, I have to put everything on low on the stove, Lord Yosho," she said in her usual cheery way. "I don't want to leave the food unattended for too long."

Yosho smiled at the small girl.

"This shouldn't take long," he said. "As soon as Ryoko gets back with Washu, we'll start."

Sasami smiled and headed for the kitchen to turn down the burners.

----------------

In another part of the house, yet apart from it, Washu looked at Tsunami.

"I'll get on finding the Queen right away," she said. "Wind Walker will probably start detecting deviations in the time stream and alert the other Senshi."

Tsunami nodded in confirmation.

"I'll go about returning the favor that the House Zarkov paid us," Tsunami said. "It will do wonders to get intelligence directly from the source of our problems."

Anything more that Washu had to say was lost when an alarm went off, startling her.

"What's that?" Tsunami asked in a voice betraying a slight panic.

"Someone's trying to enter the lab," Washu answered evenly as she brought up a viewscreen. "It's Ryoko. I better see what she wants."

"We'll talk more later," Tsunami nodded, before stating in a serious tone, "Try to find the Queen."

Washu nodded and deactivated the mirror-like device.

Opening the door to her lab, that from the outside in an ordinary house, would lead to a storage space or a basement, Washu poked her head out. The speed of her movement made her long red hair flowed around her face in her sudden stop, her green eyes were wide as she greeted her 'daughter'.

"Yes? What can I do for you?" Washu said in a slightly breathless way.

Ryoko blink-blinked at the redheaded scientist.

"Um... Yosho is having a family meeting," Ryoko said, slightly puzzled at Washu's attitude. "He wants everyone in the living room."

"Okay, I'll be there in a moment," Washu said. "I need to secure my lab before leaving."

"Say... when did you start locking up your lab?" Ryoko asked with curiosity. "I mean Mihoshi isn't around right now."

Washu looked at Ryoko and used the ready made excuse.

"I'm just taking precautions," she explained. "Mihoshi is due and I'm running some very delicate experiments."

"Due?"

"According to my Mihoshi Probability Computer, she's due," Washu lied - about the reason for locking the lab, but not the existence of the computer.

Ryoko blink-blinked at that, shrugged her shoulders and headed back to the living room.

---------------

Ranma walked in the direction of the Masaki Shrine.

She strolled along in a seemingly carefree way, but inside Ranma was impatient to get there and was fighting the urge to run the last half mile or so. She was impatient enough that earlier she hopped a ride on top of a semi and made better time than she expected. Instead of the two hours she'd guesstimated, she made it in forty-five minutes. This was to be the final stop of her training trip before heading home and she was looking forward to sparring with Tenchi's grandfather.

And sparring with Tenchi.

To keep herself from running up the path, she distracted herself by taking in the scenery.

_"It's nice out here,"_ she thought. _"Close enough to have the convinces of a city but far enough to have lots of room and privacy if you wanted."_

The sky was clear, the tall trees lined the road, and the mountains framed the scene wonderfully. The heat of the summer afternoon was not as oppressive as it was back in the thick of the city. The heat reflecting concrete and glass towers of a city had a way of making Ranma feel she was in an oven. It was nice to get back on the road and leave that all behind for awhile, but at the same time she couldn't wait to get back and see her family before school started up again.

The trees on either side widened to reveal a path that intersected the road. Turning onto it, Ranma found herself on a wide dirt path. The trees arched over the path giving the whole scene a feel of being in a cathedral. Through the branches of the trees, Ranma spied a hill with steps that led up to what she assumed was the shrine.

_"Shouldn't be far now," _Ranma thought. _"From how Tenchi described it, there is another path that goes around to the house."_

Finding the other path proved no problem, Ranma followed it around the hill until she encountered an open gate with the lake beyond. Each gate was supported by a brick wall that flanked either side of the path. Crossing through the gate, Ranma noted a bridge that crossed the lake and headed straight for the large house.

_"That seems to lead to the back door," _she thought to herself. _"I wouldn't want to seem rude. I better follow the path around to the front."_

As Ranma neared the residence, the first thing that she noticed was a bamboo fence gated by two massive logs that flanked the entrance to the grounds. They were about seven to eight feet tall and four feet or so around. There was also some kind of orb embedded in the wood near the top and each log seemed to rest on four ridiculously small peg feet that jutted out from the bottom. The sun reflected off the polished surface of the orbs that were part of the logs, drawing her attention.

What really drew Ranma's eye was the subtle energy emanating from the pair of logs. It was as if they had been infused with ki or something. It was barely there, but noticeable. It gave her the creepy feeling of being watched.

Passing through the gate, she approached the front door and unshouldered her pack. Setting down her burden, she stretched her back to work the kinks out. Satisfied that her back survived her deliberately slow trek to Tenchi's home, she extended a slender hand...

... made a small fist...

... and lightly rapped on the door.

-------------

-------------

Notes:

Howdy!

Hope everyone had a good New Years.

I know, I know. Took me long enough.

The next chapter has me nervous though. Some of the reviewers wanna see a knock down drag out between Ranma and the other girls, but remember: Tenchi put his foot down on the girls. So, for the most part, the girls will be on their best behavior.

Progress on this story has been slowed due to my Christmas present. My wife gave me some animation software and I've been playing with it. A lot. Though the concept is easy, it does has a rather steep learning curve. Overall, it's a very cool Christmas present.

And not to mention Ushicon coming up later this month...

I would like to thank everyone who took the time to leave a review. I really do appreciate it.

Thanks for reading.


	26. University Part 7

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

-  
-

University Part 7

-

Outside of the city of Okayama, nestled in a small valley with a lake, sat a three story house with a nearby shrine. The house had a lovely view of the scenic environment of mountains, trees, and the sizable lake. At the front porch of the house was a young girl with a long red pigtail that draped down to her waist. She gave the appearance of someone who was waiting patiently for someone to answer the door. On the inside however, she was excited to be there, but didn't want to look excited to be there. To calm and distract herself, she took in her surroundings and studied the details of the door frame's woodwork.

_"I hope I'm doing the right thing,"_ she worried to herself. _"He **did** say it was okay to show up anytime."  
_  
The wait seemed to drag on and on. The more it seemed to drag, the more restless she became.

_"I should have gotten his phone number before school let out,"_ she thought as she shifted from one foot to the other. _"I should have gotten hold of Okayama's operator and got the number and called before leaving on this trip."_

More shifting from one foot to the other.

_"Why am I thinking about this now?"_ she sighed to herself. _"It's true, hindsight is twenty-twenty."  
_  
Continuing to shift from one foot to the other, her nerves were starting to build to unmanageable levels.

_"Look at me,"_ she mused. _"After all I been through, I'm getting nervous about visiting a friend."  
_  
She stopped her shifting back and forth and resumed her study the wooden frame of the door, noting the creases in the grain of the wood. Ranma's nerves were catching up to her as the urge to use the restroom made itself known. She was contemplating between knocking again or leaving for home when she heard a stirring from the other side.

_"I hope he's happy to see me,"_ Ranma thought as she checked to be sure she was half-way presentable. She ran her fingers through her hair and smoothed some of the creases out of her clothes.

-

Sasami picked up Ryo-Ohki and put the cabbit on her shoulder as she exited the kitchen. She had finished putting the meal preparations on hold and was making her way back to the main room when soft rapping on the front door diverted her attention. Hesitating in the hallway, she was unsure at first what to do. It wouldn't do to make everyone wait on her, but by the same token, it wouldn't do to ignore the calling visitor. Sasami being Sasami, decided that the visitor came first and with that in mind, she made her way to the front door.

Making sure she would be presentable to whomever was on the other side, Sasami checked her clothing for any irregularities and smoothed out the apron she was wearing. She then turned the knob and swung the door wide.

She was greeted by a very lovely women with bright red hair done up in a long pigtail. The young women wore a red tailored shirt and black pants, both appeared to be made of silk. On the porch, next to the woman, was a well-worn leather backpack that looked heavier than what the woman should have been able to lift. Sasami studied the visitor briefly before addressing her.

"May I help you?" Sasami asked polity, gazing into the blue eyes of the young woman.

"Yes," the redhead responded. "I'm Ranma - I called earlier. Tenchi is expecting me."

Sasami stared at the woman for the briefest of moments before her eyes got wide. Sasami's reaction did not go unnoticed.

"Is something wrong?" Ranma asked with a hint of nervousness in her voice.

"No. Not at all," Sasami said cheerfully while stepping aside to allow Ranma to enter.

"I'm sorry," Sasami apologized. "I wasn't expecting... you're here so early. My name is Sasami."

"I'm Ranma Yonai," Ranma reintroduced herself more formally with a bow. "I'm sorry for showing up so early, it didn't take as much time as I thought it would to get here," Ranma explained as she lugged her pack in after her. "Is Tenchi here?"

"Umm..., yes! Yes he's here," Sasami said quickly with a hint of distraction. "But we're right in the middle of a... family meeting right now. Would you mind waiting in the kitchen," she added while waving in the direction of said room, "while we finish?"

"No, not at all," Ranma answered as she followed the young girl into the house after kicking off her shoes by the door. As she followed her young host down the hall to the kitchen, wearing nothing on her feet but the extra clean socks she brought, she studied the girl that lead her deeper into the house. She was small and looked to be about twelve years old, but carried herself much more maturely than that. She was wearing a green robe-like dress with gold trim that came down to her calves over light pink trousers. Over the clothes, she wore a pale blue apron with a cartoon of a carrot on it.

To Ranma, Sasami also seemed to project an air of sweet-naturedness, the kind that reminded her of Akiko and Kasumi. Ranma wondered idly what it must be like to be like that. As Ranma continued to look about, she noted that a strange looking rabbit moved from its place on the younger girl's shoulder and was now resting on the top of Sasami's head.

Noticing the unusualness of the animal, Ranma commented, "That's an interesting... rabbit... you have. I've never seen one quite like that before."

Sasami, realizing Ryo-Ohki was still on her head, began petting it absently.

"Ryo-Ohki is a cabbit," Sasami responded cheerfully.

Ranma blinked-blinked at the younger girl and her pet.

"Of course he, er... she is," Ranma finally worked out, then shrugged her shoulders. Ranma seldom noticed animals in the wild unless they were chasing her or trying to eat her, so she just dismissed the cabbit as an exotic breed of rabbit.

"Is there anywhere I can freshen up a bit?" Ranma asked as they just entered the kitchen. "I've been on the road since this morning."

"Certainly," Sasami answered cheerfully and led Ranma back into the hall.

Sasami led Ranma a little further down the hall, stopping before an anonymous door.

"Here is the bathroom," Sasami said cheerily to the redhead. "You can clean up in here. The water-closet is the next door down."

"Thanks. I appreciate it," Ranma replied happily as the mood of the younger girl rubbed off on her.

"When you finish, can you please wait in the kitchen?" Sasami asked. "I'll tell Tenchi you're there after the family meeting is over."

"Sure, no problem," Ranma said. "I can find my way back."

-

Sasami entered the living room and approached Tenchi. Yosho noted her entrance and said," Now that everyone is here, I have an announcement."

"Excuse me Lord Yosho," Sasami interrupted politely, "but I have something to tell Lord Tenchi."

"Can it wait?" Yosho asked, slightly impatient to get this over with.

Sasami furrowed her brow and decided that it could wait. She did leave Ranma with instructions to go and wait in the kitchen while they were having the meeting, so there shouldn't be any problems.

Considering that, Sasami nodded, "Yes."

Everyone was quiet as they focused their attention on the elderly looking man as he sized up everyone in return.

"Tenchi's sparring partner, Ranma, is coming here," he said. "We must all be on our best behavior." He looked at the women in the room before stressing, "No fighting - understand?"

The silence that followed dragged out for a few seconds as everyone digested that tidbit of news.

"I understand," Ayeka said primly. "We'll be on our best behavior."

"Ranma's a girl!" Ryoko complained the rafters above the room as she put two and two together. "I thought she was a guy."

"Ranma's a she?" Ayeka asked. "Is she the one that was suspected of being part Juraian?"

"Ranma is my friend," Tenchi answered firmly, so firmly that anymore comments or possible protests were halted. Tenchi eyed the girls in the room with a steady gaze.

"From what Washu has told me," Tenchi continued as he motioned to the child-like, redheaded girl. "Ranma is a very skilled martial artist. She is on the high end for ki, but a normal person outside of that. She is coming to visit me and probably spar with myself and grandfather."

The others remained silent. Tenchi was eying the girls in a way that looked as if he was daring them to say something to the contrary. None did.

"And while she is here, remember to call me by my alias, not my real name," Yosho reminded everyone. "And to be on your best behavior. We don't want to draw any undo attention."

"But... what if... she's...," Ryoko started to say and was cut off as Tenchi looked up and gave her 'that look'.

"She is my friend and guest and she will be treated accordingly - understand?" Tenchi said to all in the room in a slightly dangerous way.

"Sasami," Yosho continued. "I'm afraid I will have to ask that you keep Ryo-Ohki out of sight when Ranma is here. Ryo-Ohki would be hard to explain."

"I'm sorry Lord Yosho," Sasami said polity with a slight bow. "But it's a bit too late for that."

Yosho raised an eyebrow.

"Ranma already meet Ryo-Ohki," Sasami explained happily. "She arrived just before the meeting."

Tenchi swallowed hard, thinking of the kind of questions the cabbit would raise.

"Where is she now?" he asked.

"I asked her to wait in the kitchen while the meeting finished after she freshened up from her trip" Sasami answered.

"Could you get her please?" Tenchi asked. "We might as well get the introductions over with."

Sasami happily complied and excused herself to retrieve Ranma who should, by now, be waiting in the kitchen. Tenchi looked each of the women in the room in the eye in such a way that reminded them to be at their best behavior. Ryoko wore an expression of flusteredness, Ayeka was a mask of coolness and Washu looked... worried about something.

Sasami soon returned with a redhead in tow.

Ranma followed Sasami as they entered the main room of the house. Ranma absently noted that the room was large, larger than any room she had ever seen in any house before.

_"With all this room out here in the middle of nowhere,"_ Ranma thought as she looked about the room. _"I guess they can spread out a bit."_

Ranma soon became distracted by Tenchi as her eyes were automatically drawn to him - and in her eyes he was looking good. Tenchi was wearing a brown gi-like shirt with matching pants and had his hair in his traditional pigtail. He was standing in the center of the room next to an older man.

Her heart had involuntarily skipped a few beats when see first spied Tenchi and it took some will power to keep her heart rate from picking up even more when Tenchi crossed the room and stood by her side.

"Everyone," Tenchi said as he stood next to Ranma. "I would like you to meet Ranma Yonai, she is my sparring partner and friend."

Ranma smiled inwardly and felt a certain amount of comfort in that Tenchi didn't seemed put off by her being there. She could swear that she could feel his body heat through the small distance between them. She quickly shook that off mentally.

_"Stupid romantic notions,"_ she berated herself mentally along with the friends that she blamed for putting those foolish ideas in her head.

_"Sparring partner, friend,"_ she reminded herself sharply.

"Hello," Ranma said somewhat shyly. "I'm pleased to meet all of you."

The older man bowed to her and formally welcomed her.

"Welcome to our home," Katsuhito, aka Yosho, said with a sparkle in his eyes. He adjusted his glasses and introduced himself "I'm Katsuhito, Tenchi's grandfather. Am I to understand that you're responsible for keeping Tenchi on his toes?"

_"Tenchi's grandfather?"_ Ranma mused to herself as she looked at the bespectacled, grey haired man. _"There's something weird about him- like some kind of slight distortion or something around him."  
_  
"Yes sir," Ranma responded as she mentally shrugged and filed that tidbit to ask about later if she felt like it. "And you trained Tenchi?"

Yosho nodded. Ranma smiled.

"Cool," Ranma said in a voice that carried an excited edge. "Wanna spar?"

Katsuhito gave out a soft chuckle.

"Perhaps after dinner," he answered with a smile. "I've heard a lot about your skill from Tenchi. I've been looking forward to meeting you."

Ranma smiled at the elder Masaki and bounced lightly on the balls of her feet. She looked very cute doing that Tenchi noted and continued with the introductions.

"Um... Ranma, this is Ryoko," Tenchi said as he motioned to a woman who was laying across a horizontal beam that transversed the room.

She had cyan colored, spiky hair and was casually laying across the beam and looked down on Ranma much like a cat would. In fact, the woman's body language seemed catlike. The slightly slitted, golden eyes while unnerving, were not as unnerving as the slightly predatory look on her features. Ranma assessed her fighting ability as she was undoubtedly doing the same to her.

_"She a scrapper, but an unskilled one,"_ Ranma concluded. _"She probably depends on strength instead of skill in a fight."_

"Pleased to meet you," Ranma said while plastering what she hoped was a disarming smile on her face.

Ryoko returned the smile with one of her own, this one wasn't so disarming though.

"I'm sure," Ryoko said with a drawl. "You're Tenchi's sparring partner?"

Still with what Ranma hoped was a disarming smile, Ranma nodded.

"Maybe we should spar - see what happens," Ryoko said with a hint of mischief.

"Ah... I'll think about it," Ranma said, feeling a little like a bird being stalked by a hungry cat.

Tenchi gave Ryoko a look that Ranma didn't catch that caused Ryoko to flinch. Tenchi then gently took Ranma's arm, and led her away. Ranma's reaction to Tenchi's touch surprised her as a slightly excited tremble started from the pit of her stomach threatened to spread throughout her body. She quickly suppressed the feeling and cursed herself for her stupidity.

_"Friend. Sparring partner," _she repeated the mantra mentally._ "Don't be an idiot."_

Tenchi led Ranma to two other girls that were seated on a low couch. One of the girls she had already met, the other was about her age and wore a dress not too unlike the younger girl except the colors were different. The dress was a white and pink patterned one and the trousers were a pale blue.

"This is Ayeka and her sister Samsai, whom you have already met." Tenchi said in an even way.

This woman in the room gave off an air of - not snobbery, but refinement. She seemed to be more of a proper woman than Ryoko. She was cordial, yet distant, but not so much so that she appeared cold. At first, Ranma thought Ayeka had short purple hair with two ponytails in the front that hung down and framed her face. It was when Ayeka rose to greet her that Ranma realized that Ayeka sported two longer ponytails in the back that nearly touched the ground. Ayeka stood before Ranma and greeted her with politeness and a proper bow. Ranma returned the bow with one that was equally proper.

"It is a pleasure to met you, Miss Yonai," the purple haired girl said.

"The pleasure is all mine," Ranma replied. "Please call me Ranma."

"As you like. You may call me Ayeka," she said cordially. "I understand you've already met Sasami."

"Yes I have," Ranma replied as she smiled at the young girl next to Ayeka. "She's very sweet."

Sasami responded by blushing slightly and giving Ryo-Ohki, who was back on her shoulder, a rub. The animal let out a soft meowing sound.

_"Do rabbits meow?"_ Ranma thought hesitantly as Tenchi led her to the next person.

"And this is Washu," Tenchi said as he indicated another child about twelve or thirteen. She was dressed in a red jumpsuit that matched the color of her spiky hair. Of all the people in the room, this child unnerved Ranma the most. What drew Ranma's attention was the stunned look of recognition kept over Washu's face.

In spite of being unnerved, Ranma gave what she hoped came across as a friendly smile. Something was haunting the back of her mind, something she couldn't pin down. The way the girl was looking at Ranma made her feel like a bug under a microscope.

For some reason Ranma feared the redheaded child.

_"There's something about this girl," _Ranma thought. _"It's like... I don't know. She gives me the creeps."  
_  
Ranma forced her attention away from Washu and addressed the room as a whole.

"Pleased to meet all of you," Ranma said with the traces of nervousness in her voice.

-

Soon after the introductions were over, Washu rushed back into her lab, her long red hair trailing behind her like the tail of a comet as she did so. Rushing up to the mirrored device, she punched the button to activate it with her fist and impatiently waited for the communications device to come up. She paced back and forth in front of it, stopping every few steps to tap her foot on the floor.

"Come on, come on," she urged the device and more importantly for Tsunami to respond to the call.

Slowly the mirrored surface gave way to the milky waver of the domain that Tsunami inhabited. Then when Washu was about to page again, the ghostly outline of Tsunami solidified in the glass.

Tsunami looked at Washu worried expression and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Fire Walker is here!" Washu said in a near panic. "She arrived just after we finished talking."

Tsunami eyes widened.

"Fire Walker? Are you sure?"

"Tenchi's sparring partner is Fire Walker," Washu explained breathlessly. "A girl by the name of Ranma shows up and Tenchi confirms that Ranma is his sparring partner. She even looks like she did back then! Ranma is Fire Walker and she is here."

"Calm yourself Washu," Tsunami said soothingly. "We must not lose our heads. Why is she here?"

Washu rolled her eyes.

"To spar and visit Tenchi, or so I am told," Washu said. "Wind Walker must have found the deviation in the time stream and the Queen sent Fire Walker to investigate."

"Calm yourself, Washu. You don't know that. It would not do us any good to go off half cocked," Tsunami said.

Silence fell between the two as Washu calmed herself.

"It is possible that Fire Walker is here to check us out, but maybe not," Tsunami stated calmly. "But in any case we must be on our guard. Try and make everything as ordinary as possible so as to not rouse her suspicions. Also, if you can put some kind of tracking device on her so we can trace her back to the others, that would be most helpful."

Washu calmed herself.

"You're right. This is an opportunity to get some information on what the Senshi are up to," Washu mused out loud.

"Exactly," Tsunami said. "Do you have anything handy to do the job?"

Washu looked at Tsunami with half lidded eyes.

"Never mind, stupid question," Tsunami said with a wave of her hand.

-

Washu reentered the family room and spied Yosho, Ayeka and Ryoko. She was under the impression that Yosho was firmly reminding the girls to be on their best behavior.

"Yo, I mean Katsuhito," Washu said as she walked up to him. "We need to talk - alone and not here."

Katsuhito, aka Yosho, raised an eyebrow as did the others in the room. When a woman tells a man that "we need to talk", it usually means trouble - in a paternity sense.

Washu, realizing how it sounded, clarified the statement.

"It's not what it sounds like," she said, before stressing, "but it is important."

Katsuhito looked at Washu and back at the other girls and nodded. Ayeka and Ryoko excused themselves and headed out the back of the house, toward the lake.

"Where is Tenchi?" Washu asked as she lead Yosho to her lab.

"He's showing Ranma the house," Katsuhito replied. "What's the matter?"

"It's a long story. A very long story," Washu paused and sighed while unsealing the doorway to her lab. "First, have you ever heard of the Silver Millennium or the Moon kingdom?"

Katsuhito stopped walking, furrowed his brow in confusion and then in remembrance. "Just some bedtime stories - legends and myths that my mother told me when I was very little. Why?"

Shutting the door behind them, Washu ran a quick scan to be certain that they were unobserved. After assuring herself that was the case, Washu turned and looked at Katsuhito in a way that was very piercing.

"Sometimes, legends live."

-

"This is my room," Tenchi said as he motioned to a closed door as they made their way down the upstairs hall. "Ayeka and Sasami's room is over here and my father's is across from them."

Tenchi was giving Ranma the grand tour of the house. It was a lovely house; wooden floors, paneling and fine shojis. Ranma wondered how they could afford such a house, but refrained from asking. It would be an 'improper question' as Akiko would say.

"Isn't that kind of dangerous?" Ranma asked. "Didn't you tell me he's like a perv or something?"

Tenchi smiled at Ranma.

"They can deal with my father if he gets too... carried away."

"Ah," Ranma said in understanding.

At the end of the hall where another flight of stairs.

"Where do those stairs go?" Ranma asked, fascinated at a being in a house so large.

"That goes up to the observation deck," he replied. "Want to see?"

Ranma nodded.

As fascinated by the house as Ranma was, she became aware of some oddities, though. When Tenchi was showing Ranma around downstairs, she detected a spike of an unknown energy. It was small, but enough to set the alarm bells off somewhere in the back of her mind where most of her Senshi memories from the past resided. The spike came and went quickly, so Ranma set it aside for the moment. She wanted to concentrate on enjoying Tenchi's company.

Following Tenchi up the stairway, Ranma found herself in a room with large glass panes. Tenchi moved over to a door and held it open for her. Outside, the view was magnificent.

"It's beautiful," Ranma commented.

"Yes it is," Tenchi answered, focusing more on Ranma than the scenery.

He sighed.

Ranma caught the sound and turned to look at Tenchi.

"Is there anything wrong?" she asked. "Did I come at a bad time?"

Tenchi smiled. Ranma felt her knees weaken, but hid it.

"No, nothing wrong here," Tenchi said while still smiling. "Everything is just fine."

_"Maybe I can talk to him about how I think... I feel," _Ranma thought. As she looked into his brown eyes, she felt a connection. Whether it was real or imagined, she couldn't tell. _"I'll... try to feel him out. I don't want to look like a fool."_

"Tenchi?" Ranma asked softly. "Can I talk to you about something?"

Tenchi blinked, paused and smiled.

"Sure," he said. "That's what friends are for."

Ranma felt her heart sink a little.

_"Friends. Just as I thought," _Ranma thought. _"Nothing more than friends. I'm such an idiot."  
_  
"Ranma?" Tenchi prodded.

"Umm," Ranma's mind raced, looking for a cover. One came to her, improper or not she was going to use it. "How did your family come to all of this?"

Tenchi blink-blinked.

"Well, um... this land and the shrine has been in the family for a least seven hundred years," Tenchi explained. "My father is an architect so he designed the house."

"Oh, I see," Ranma said embarrassingly. "I didn't mean to pr-"

Then it happened again. Another spike.

_"What the hell is that?"_ she thought to herself as that part of mind kicked in automatically - much to her annoyance.

"Something wrong?" a concerned Tenchi asked, noticing the change in Ranma demeanor.

"No," Ranma lied. She hated lying. "Just taking the view in."

She looked out across the large lake with its surrounding tree-covered mountains. It was a lovely view and she wished she could concentrate one hundred percent on it, however she could also feel the back of her mind churning, analyzing the energy spike. Ranma sighed inwardly, this was another thing she wished she could control.

Controlling your power when your are using it was no problem, a year of practice had seen to that. Ranma's problem was that her Senshi power was made to be accessed in her non-Senshi state. It was limited by comparison to her transformed state, but it would sometimes would 'leak' into her whether she wanted it or not. She knew that eventually, out of nowhere, she would get a 'report' on the energy spike.

_"Energy spike caused by access to a space/time displacement,"_ came the answer from the recesses of her mind.

_"Great. More weirdness in my life,_" she thought somewhat bitterly. "_Whatever it is can wait."_

Noticing that Tenchi was looking at her somewhat expectedly, she surveyed the surrounding landscape.

"What's that up there," Ranma asked as she pointed to a structure half way up the mountain, obscured by trees.

"That's the shrine," Tenchi answered. "If you want, I'll show it to you."

Ranma nodded and the young couple headed inside, through and out the house.

-

"I see...," Katsuhito said. "What does this have to with Ranma?"

"Ranma is the reincarnation of the last and most powerful Senshi created," Washu explained. "So powerful that the entire Juraian fleet would pose no challenge."

Silence fell between the two as Katsuhito digested that.

"How do the Senshi connect with the situation on Jurai?" Katsuhito asked.

"It seems that one of the houses..."

-

Tenchi led Ranma around the perimeter of the lake a short distance before heading toward a nearby mountain. On the face of the tree covered mountain were steps cut into the living rock that lead up. Ranma walked side by side with Tenchi in silence as they made their way to the shrine that was located two thirds of the way up. Dragonflies danced in the air about them.

"It's really lovely around here," Ranma commented as she climbed the tree lined stairs effortlessly.

"It is," Tenchi replied as he added mentally, _"But not as lovely as you."_

"This is way different than Tokyo," Ranma said awkwardly. "Nice and peaceful."

Tenchi turned his head in Ranma's direction and smiled.

"It's good to see you again," he said with a smile. "How have you been? Keeping busy at your family's restaurant?"

"I've been fine. The museum closed for exhibit changes. Granny hired some people for summer help, so I didn't have much to do - so I decided to go on a training trip and swing by and see you." Ranma answered. "It's been boring with no one to spar..."

As the two youths chatted, they were being observed by three pairs of eyes. Two pairs natural, one artificial.

Ranma stopped one step from the top and looked about the shrine grounds. It kind of reminded her of the Cherry Hill shrine that Rei lived in, but it seemed more spread out by not being confined by the urban mass of Tokyo.

The shrine was divided into two buildings, one being the shrine itself, the other Ranma thought was the old shrine residence. The grounds were surrounded by a narrow low, wall with pointed uprights. There was a stone path from the top of the stairs to the front steps of the shrine. The shrine complex had traditional tiled roofs and a railed deck that went around each building.

Ranma causally took in the peaceful scene and watched Tenchi from the corner of her eye. Seeing that he was watching her, she quickly suppressed the blush she felt coming and sat on the top step to the shrine grounds. Tenchi looked down on her for a brief moment before sitting beside her, almost touching.

"The girls seem nice," Ranma commented as they sat together on the stairs. Tenchi cocked an eyebrow that Ranma caught. "I know, I know. Looks can be deceiving."

"They're nice until they get jealous," Tenchi said almost bitterly. "Then they can get... not so nice."

Silence fell between the two.

"So," Ranma said feeling the tension between them. "What do you do for fun around here?"

Tenchi laughed at that.

"Well there isn't much to do per se," he answered. "But if you're going to be around awhile, I know a karaoke bar in Okayama."

"Karaoke?" Ranma said while giving Tenchi a winning smile. "You really know how to work your way into my heart."

Tenchi laughed nervously, "Well, with all the time that we spent at the Cute Rabbit, I think I figured you out - at least a bit."

Ranma giggled along with his laughter before commenting, "I better change then, men aren't suppose to figure women out."

More silence.

"Sooo, want to go tomorrow night?" Tenchi asked abruptly and not very smoothly.

Ranma smiled, her heart skipped a beat and thought, _"Is he asking me out?"_

"I'd love to," Ranma answered. "I wasn't planning on heading back to Tokyo until the day after tomorrow, so time isn't a problem. I promised some friends of mine that I'd be back at a certain time."

"Oh," Tenchi said, with mixed feelings visible on his face.

"You're very sweet to ask," Ranma said. She then spontaneously and without thought, leaned over and gave Tenchi a kiss on the cheek. That that moment, Ranma detected two ki signatures that flared.

Behind some nearby bushes, two young women bristled at the contact that Ranma had with Tenchi.

"Grrrrr," Ryoko said lowly and dangerously. Ayeka looked on with narrowed eyes, schooling the rest of her features.

_"Great. We're being watched," _Ranma thought while sighing internally. _"I better do something or I'll have them after me."  
_  
"Say Tenchi?" Ranma asked rather loudly. "Can we invite the other girls, so they wont feel quite so - left out?."

Tenchi blink-blinked.

"I guess... if you want. Why?"

"Well I just want to get to know your friends more, that's all," Ranma replied while giving him a inviting smile.

Tenchi, wearing a look of uncertainty, pondered Ranma's request, shrugged his shoulders and then nodded.

"Okay, if you want to."

-

"So my mother and Queen Misaki are on there way here," Katsuhito stated. "To probably bring me back to Jurai."

"It would probably be for the best," Washu urged while nodding. "It would help everyone if you at least returned home to assist your father."

Katsuhito sighed and rubbed his temple with the thumb and index finger of one hand. This is not what he wanted to hear.

"What are our options and how do we handle Ranma?" Katsuhito asked after massaging his head. "Is she a danger to Tenchi?"

"Leave Ranma to me," Washu said. "You should concentrate on how you are going to deal with the Queens."

Katsuhito regarded the diminutive redhead for the briefest of moments before he nodded in consent.

"As far as Ranma being a threat," Washu continued. "Let's just say I've been around long enough to see that Tenchi has picked up another admirer."

-

"Dinner should be ready," Tenchi said as he stood with a stretch.

He looked down at the still seated Ranma and offered her his hand. Ranma looked up at Tenchi and smile as she took the offered hand and allowed him to help her to her feet.

Once on her feet, she basked in the feeling of his hand in hers. They lingered that way for a moment before each dropped their hands and descending the stairs.

Dragonflies continued to dance in the air about them.

-

Washu ate her dinner and kept a close eye on the redhead seated in front of her and considering the different ways to plant some type of tracking device on her.

_"From what Tsunami has told me,"_ Washu thought. _"Anything that I plant that transmits would be picked up as an anomaly by her internal sensors."_

She watched Ranma as she engaged in conversation with the others around the table.

_"She looks almost exactly as she did back then,"_ Washu thought in amassment. _"I wish I had been more involved in Fire Walker's project. I could've tweaked things a bit."_

Washu's thoughts were derailed as Sasami asked her a question that barely registered consciously.

"I'm sorry," Washu said. "What did you say?"

"I asked if you would like more rice?"

"Oh, no thank you," Washu answered distractedly.

For the rest of the dinner, Washu continued to ponder the problem. It wasn't that she didn't have anything that would be useful for tracking Ranma, but finding one that she would not pick up on was proving to be daunting.

Ranma leaned to one side and brushed her bangs to the side of her face. Washu noted a nondescript bracelet that dangled on her wrist. Washu blinked and studied the jewelry that Ranma was sporting closely.

_"That looks familiar,"_ she thought as her mind raced back twenty millennium. Washu eye's widened in recognition.

_"It couldn't be! That looks like a space/time tracker!" _Washu mind shouted. _"She's wearing a space/time tracker!"  
_  
"Are you all right?" Ayeka asked, bringing Washu into the here and now.

"Yes," she answered. "I just got an idea for something I've been working on. That's all."

_"I'll have to get back to my lab,"_ Washu thought excitedly. _"If I can find out what it is tuned to, I can use their own device to spy on them."  
_  
-

After the evening's meal, which she thought was excellent, Ranma had quickly changed into her gi in the bathroom's changing room and met the others outside by the house. She did some stretches and lazily swung the bokken that had been lent her. Tenchi's grandfather, Katsuhito, stood by and watched her every move with great interest.

"Ready?" the redhead asked the older man.

Katsuhito gave a nod and got into a stance that reminded Ranma of how Tenchi carried himself. Ranma got into her own stance with the blade lowered with the tip almost touching the tops of the grass. Both combatants stared at each other for a what seemed like a prolonged instant. Ranma always noticed that there is a moment before battle that time seemed to naturally slow down. It was like the whole world was holding its breath as it waited for the show to begin.

Without a visible signal, Ranma and Katsuhito charged and leapt at each other.

To the observers Katsuhito and Ranma seemed to blur and leave after images in their passing. They didn't even see the bokkens touch, but knew that they did from the sharp cracking sounds that resounded throughout the practice ground. After about a minute of this the combatants broke apart and resize each other.

_"Man, he's better than I thought,"_ Ranma said to herself as she analyzed her opponent.

Yosho studied the girl with an appraising eye. In spite of the very feminine frame that Ranma possessed and as shy as she was acting, she seemed to emit a subtle power. A subtle power that Yosho could almost feel.

_"Washu was right, there is more to this girl than meets the eye,"_ Yosho thought to himself. _"I'll push her and see how far she goes."  
_  
After a brief moment both parties attacked again.

The other members of the household witnessing the spar came to the same conclusion as Katsuhito.

Ayeka looked upon the fight unsure on how to react. When she was first introduced to Ranma she was slightly peeved at the fact that she was beautiful and not some muscled bound tomboy that she had imagined her to be. Now, watching Ranma spar and keep up with Katsuhito without breaking a sweat was unnerving.

Ryoko was wondering if Ranma was even human as fast as she was moving.

Tenchi watched in awe as Ranma moved like he'd never did in their matches.

_"She... she's been holding back on me - like... I've been holding back on her," _he realized. _"When we get back to school, I'll turn our matches up a few notches."  
_  
He then recalled the damage to the gym after their first match.

_"Well," _Tenchi concluded,_ "not too much."_

Ranma attempted to use the same move that Tenchi used to defeat Yosho the other day and failed. 

_"He knows that move!_" Ranma thought in surprise, before mentally slapping herself. _"Of course! He's been sparring with Tenchi and Tenchi been using my moves. This just got a lot more interesting."_

Ranma dodged a few quick swipes made by Katsuhito and considered her options.

_"Let's see how his speed is,"_ she thought as she moved into chestnut speed.

If Ranma was a blur before, she was almost invisible in her movements. Katsuhito was taken by surprise, but before he could get tagged by one of the hundreds of blows that Ranma was raining on him, he leapt backward putting a good deal of distance between him and the redhead. Being used to opponents that stayed in a fight no matter what, Ranma was caught off guard by Katsuhito's retreat. Ranma's bokken snapped harmlessly in the empty space where Katsuhito was before she stopped.

_"Dammit,"_ Ranma berated herself. _"Should've known he'd retreat. Gonna have to be more careful."_

For the second time in the match, both parties sized each other up. With a surge of what Ranma thought of as ki, and with great speed, Katsuhito attacked. Ranma braced herself and dodged and blocked every blow that Katsuhito sent her way. She forced Katsuhito's blade one way in a disarming move, only to have him recover and continue his attack.

The fight was thrilling and troubling at the same time.

The audience was silent as the combatants struck and parried swiftly, moving about the opening in great leaps and bounds as they did so. One member of the group flew on its four wings to get a better reading on the female fighter.

For Ranma, the elation of the match as it progressed turned into something else. Fear. She had to immediately tap into a good chunk of her ki to keep up with the elder Masaki and was quickly progressing to that grey area she had dubbed 'The Border'. The Border was what she named that area where ki and Senshi magic intermingled. An area that she tried to avoid.

_"No way I'm going to use my Senshi power for this,"_ she thought._ "I don't need it... I haven't needed it in a spar on this trip so far... I can do this without it."_

Ranma tapped into her ki some more, knowing that she was pushing toward the always shifting edge of The Border. To her dismay, Katsuhito seemed to tap deeper into his ki reserves as well and caught up and pressed Ranma for all she was worth.

Katsuhito then stepped up his attacks further, forcing Ranma to do the same. Ranma noted the same kind of ki flow around Katsuhito that was present in Tenchi.

_"So it is hereditary," _Ranma concluded as she barely blocked a swipe of Katsuhito's bokken. _"Damn! I've got take this up or I'm going to lose."  
_  
The bokkens repeatedly crashed into one another. Katsuhito drove fast and hard and Ranma matched him while struggling to keep control of herself. She had two opposing things pulling at her: The fight itself with her desire to win and the ability to pull a great deal of power into fight. However, in Ranma's eyes her Senshi power was given to her and not earned, so she would forsake it in a spar like this.

If she could keep it under control.

_"I can do this myself," _Ranma thought desperately as she poured more of herself into the fight, while riding the edge. _"I don't need it!"_

As she was getting drawn closer to 'The Border', Ranma started to sweat. Her strain was not from the fight itself but in trying to keep herself in check.

_"He can't be using just ki! He can't!" _Ranma thought hopelessly as Katsuhito again stepped up the fight another notch._ "I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to-"_

In spite of the years training and practice, Ranma slipped.

_"No!"_ her mind screamed as she quickly squelched the Senshi power that rode in with her ki. _"I. Will. Not!"  
_  
Distracted by a sudden charge and sweep from Katsuhito's attacks and trying to quell her Senshi powers, Ranma's guard slipped. By the time she forced the Senshi power away and came back to herself, Ranma notice the tip of Katsuhito's bokken pressed against her chest.

She had lost.

-

Ranma stripped her clothes off and rubbed the spot where Katsuhito's bokken had pressed against her breast. It didn't hurt - didn't even leave a mark, but it served as a reminder that she wasn't in control as much as she fooled herself into believing. Removing the last of her clothing in the changing room, she was depressed and disturbed at the turn of events. Once naked, she slid the door open to the bath.

_"How in the hell can I slip like that?"_ she worriedly questioned herself. _"I mean I worked so hard for the last year, trying to perfect my control over my non-transformed Senshi power."  
_  
Ranma entered the bathing area and looked around. The bathroom was very sizable and had one of the largest furos outside a public bath house she'd ever seen. She took it all in and wondered how a shrine could afford all of this.

_"Wow,"_ she thought. _"This is even bigger than the Tendo's."_

Ranma shook off the memories of the dead past and took the nearest stool and reached for a rinse bucket. As she began to bath herself on autopilot, she turned her mind over to more pressing matters.

_"I haven't gotten as much control as I thought," _she thought. _"Maybe all that practicing was for nothing. Maybe all I did was just bury myself in training so I wouldn't think about it."  
_  
She filled the bucket and poured the contents over her. Water cascaded down her form and flatting her crimson hair out against her body. She then soaped up her long hair, working the dirt and sweat out of it.

_"I wish I was like the other Senshi,"_ she thought as she scrubbed. _"They don't tap into their powers until they're transformed."  
_  
After Ranma's hands had worked the dirt and sweat out of the tips of her long, red locks, she picked up the rinse bucket.

_"I hope those scrolls that I picked up today will help. I hate not having perfect control over my powers,"_ Ranma thought as she rinsed the soap out of her hair. _"I wish it wasn't so involuntary. One second I'm using my ki, the next - wham- I'm tapping into my Senshi power."_

She stopped bathing for a moment, sighing heavily. It was an old fear - a fear that had been with her since she understood Pluto's fears so long ago. It came and went with her moods and training - the more training the better she felt, but it was something that always haunted her from the back of her mind.

_"If I don't have perfect control over my power - then how long will it be before it controls me?"_

She shook her head clear of that disquieting thought and finished rinsing her body of soap. She wrapped her hair in a towel in preparation of entering the furo when further thoughts were interrupted by the bathroom door sliding to one side and three naked girls entering. Ayeka, Sasami, and Ryoko all stood by the doorway, each holding their bathing supplies in one hand.

"Oh - I'm sorry," Ayeka said politely. "Would you like us to come back later?"

Ranma put on her best smile and shoved the rest of her troubled thoughts away.

"No," Ranma said softly. "Please come in. I would love the company."

The three girls entered the room. Ranma having finished bathing, vacated the stool she was on and eased herself into the waiting hot water of the furo. Sasami took the stool that Ranma had used and began washing herself. Ryoko and Ayeka took the other stools and began, what Ranma assumed, a subtle interrogation.

"That was some spar you did out there," Ryoko said. "I never seen anyone push Yo, er... Katsuhito like that. How long have you been doing this?"

"I've been studying the Art most my life," Ranma answered plainly, but inwardly she sighed. She knew that they were just fishing for information and considering what Tenchi has told her about them, it would be only natural for them to be curious.

_"I could play a game of twenty questions all night long,_" Ranma thought as she soaked._ "Or I could tell my life's story for the zillionth time."_

With those two options, Ranma decided to lay all her cards on the table. As depressing as it was for Ranma to dredge up the past, she knew that the girls would probably pry until they were satisfied.

"It's a long story," Ranma from her spot in the large furo. "Would you care to hear it?"

-

In her lab, Washu studied the readouts on the sparring session between Katsuhito and Ranma. She watched impassively, but with interest, Ranma's ki waveform as the power levels climbed and climbed as the fight got tougher and tougher.

_"Why did she lose?" _Washu wondered. _"With as much power as Tsunami said she has, Katsuhito should have been a push over."_

Washu slowed the recording down toward what was the end of the fight. Ranma's ki waveform didn't alter at all, but the power readings passing through the waveform changed slightly and then expanded dramatically before being crushed down.

_"There **is** a lot of power there,"_ Washu concluded. _"But there's also something - odd."_

She re-watched a section of the recording of Ranma's waveforms. Slowing down the recording at some points to more study the details. The waveform itself stayed the same, just the amount of power being filtered through increased. Then for a brief instant, about a thousandth of a second in real time, the waveform altered itself into a different pattern before returning to it's previous one. Using her knowledge of the other Scouts that she had a hand in, Washu made a disquieting conclusion.  
_  
"She's already at stage one!" _Washu thought in a panic._ "She's not at zero state! And for a thousandth of a second, she slipped into stage two."  
_  
Washu controlled her anxiety and concentrated on the other task at hand, she was determined to have a more detailed talk with Tsunami about Fire Walker. She re-ran the recordings of Ranma's waveforms for the tenth time and looked for anything that might lead to the what band the space/time tracker was tuned to. Adjusting equipment she hadn't touched in several thousand years, she browsed through several channel combinations. After an half hour of fiddling with various dials and knobs, she smiled in discovery.

_"I think I've isolated it," _she cackled mentally to herself._ "It's in such a narrow band, it had to be tuned to something specific - but what?"_

Washu crossed her left arm over her chest and propped her right hand under her chin.

_"There are only two people who would be interested in tracking Fire Walker, the Queen and Wind Walker,_" she theorized.

Calling up the Mars Computer, she activated and scanned the relevant files. After a moment of careful reading, she deactivated the computer and adjusted a few dials.  
_  
"Let's try this," _she thought as she made the adjustments and watched the screens. _"I'll have to be careful though, I don't want my tapping to be detected."_

Nothing.  
_  
"Okay - now this."_

The screen wavered and an aerial view of Okayama appeared. A glowing dot on the far outskirts of the city throbbed. Washu zoomed in on the dot until it resolved itself into a floor plan of the house. The dot was in the furo.

_"If I up the resolution, I could see her,"_ she thought with a smile before it faded. _"But doing that would draw attention. As it is, what I'm doing can be spotted if Wind Walker or the Queen look close enough. Still, this should be good enough for me to track her back to the rest of the Senshi."_

Washu turned the screen off and pondered what to do next.

-

After Ranma's and his grandfather's sparring match, it was Tenchi's turn. He lost of course, but gave almost as much as he got. He was still mulling over the skill that Ranma had displayed earlier.  
_  
"I gotta ask her to step up or sparring matches a bit," _he was thinking. _"I want to keep surprising Grandfather like I did the other day."  
_  
As was his habit after sparring with Yosho, Tenchi made his way to the bathroom going over the matches while they were still fresh in his mind. Engrossed in his thoughts, he didn't pay much attention to what he was doing or his surroundings, thus completely missing the four changes of clothing on one of the shelves.

-

Later the four slightly pruney girls were still sitting in the furo, talking.

"Your ex-father seems quite the scoundrel," Ayeka said with a hint of sympathy. "Your adopted family must be very admirable to take you in as they did."

"Yeah," Ranma agreed. "They're probably the most... um, gracious people you'll ever met."

"Wow," Ryoko commented. "You had some life there, kid."

Ranma internally bristled at the 'kid' comment, but didn't reveal it on the surface.

"None of the fiancees that your father arranged for you loved you?" Sasami asked quietly.

Ranma shook her head.

"No, not really. I least I don't think so. I was just a prize to them."

"How about Tenchi?" Ayeka asked smoothly in an oh so 'I'm not digging for info' voice.

Ranma smirked inwardly. She had been expecting that particular question to come up.

"He's more man than any of my ex-fiancees could even hope to be," she said with mirth before becoming serious. "He's a good friend. He doesn't treat me like a prize, he doesn't spar with me like I was made of glass, he treats me like a human being."

Ranma sat back in the hot waters of the furo and considered her own words.

_"Maybe things would've gone better between Akane and I if I hadn't been such a jerk back then," _she mused darkly. _"But that was a long time ago, I was just a kid then and I acted like one."_

Ranma shook her head slightly, freeing her thoughts once again from the dead past and bringing her back into the present. The other girls nodded on Ranma's words and silence fell amongst them with only the splashing of water heard.

"Yuck," Ranma said softly as she examined her fingers. "I better get out before I shrivel away to nothing."

This comment was followed by a chorus of equally soft 'me too's'. The four girls, wearing nothing but towels wrapped around their heads rose as one from the water. All of them slid out of the furo and silently made their way to the door.

-

Tenchi had disrobed and threw his dirty clothes in the hamper. He stretched his back, working some of the stiffness that was building from his match with his grandfather. He reached over and grasped the handle of the sliding door to the furo.

He slid it open smoothly.

Before him were four naked girls, three in front, one hidden by the one in the middle. Tenchi's mind decided to freeze up at that moment as his eyes were captured by the one in the middle.

-

Ranma was between Ryoko and Ayeka with Sasami behind her as Ryoko reached for the door. The door to the bathroom unexpectedly slid open on its own revealing a very startled and very naked Tenchi on the other side.

Four naked girls were staring at one naked man.

Time seemed to freeze as Ranma's and Tenchi's eyes locked on one another. Ranma's eyes were slowly and involuntarily dragged downward.

"Oh my," she whispered.

-

Tenchi had a sudden flashback to the incident were Ranma had accidentally flashed him. He had secretly enjoyed recalling it from time to time and thought he'd gotten an eyeful then. He was now proven very wrong. This was much more than a flash of unexpected breasts, this was a naked Ranma. A very naked-as-the-day-she-was-born Ranma that stood before him. Her skin still had a sheen from the bath water with stray droplets here and there.

Tenchi's eyes involuntary followed one of the droplets of water as it wandered downward past the valley of her breasts, abdomen, navel and...

He heard a faint, "Oh my" from Ranma and came back to himself.

"Excuseme,I'msorry!" erupted out of his mouth before he shut the door as quickly as he could.

-

With the proclamation of "Oh my", time unfroze and seem to speed up to normal.

"Excuseme,I'msorry!" Tenchi blurted out as he shut the door so quickly that Ranma didn't even see it move. The slam of the door was followed by the padding sound of feet running from the changing room.

The girls blink-blinked.

"Let's get dressed and get you settled for the night," Sasami suggested, breaking the awkwardness of the moment.

Ranma nodded as Ayeka and Ryoko verbally voiced their agreement.

-

Tenchi grabbed a towel, wrapped it around his waist, rushed down the hall and back into his room - holding his nose all the way.

_"Oh man, oh man, oh man,"_ his mantra kept going over in his head.

Entering his room, he closed the door and stood there, mind racing while leaning back against the door to his room. After a bit, his hormone level declined and he was able to think coherently again.

_"Now she's going to think I'm some kind of pervert," _he bemoaned himself as he started pacing. _"Aww man, what am I going to do?"  
_  
He stopped his pacing, rubbed his temples and sighed at this unexpected event.

_"I'm going to have to apologize,"_ he concluded, _"and hope for the best."_

He stood there and thought back to the incident. It was his own fault, he should have been paying attention to the here and now. Instead, he let his mind wander and now he was in a fix.

He sighed again.

_"I bet Ranma's mad or something,"_ he thought with dread. _"No girl...," _he paused in reconsideration._'"Well, most girls don't like to be walked in on."_

Opening his door he peeked out into the hallway. He watched as the now dressed girls made their way to Ayeka and Sasami's room.

_"I'll give them time to settle down,"_ he thought. _"Then I'll apologize."_

He sighed again before his thoughts strayed back to the scene in the bathroom, a goofy grin crept onto his face. _"She is a natural redhead," _he thought.

He froze at the realization of what he thought. To stop himself from thinking anymore perverted thoughts, he slapped himself.

Hard.

-

"How long will you be staying?" Sasami asked as she walked beside the redhead to the room that Sasami and Ayeka shared. She was carrying a light blanket and Ranma carried a futon. It was decided that Ranma would share the sister's room for the duration of her stay.

"Just a few days," Ranma replied. "I have to start heading back to Tokyo the day after tomorrow."

"Seems a shame to come all this way just for a few days," Sasami commented.

"Well, it was mostly a training trip," Ranma explained. "And I promised my sister and my friends that I would be back in time to go to Kasai Rinkai Park with them."

"Kasai Rinkai Park ?" Sasami asked curiously.

"Yeah," Ranma answered as she followed Sasami into her room. "It's a beach or something. It's suppose to have a Sea Life Park and a couple of beaches. Hitomo, that's a friend of mine, went there last year and liked it. I've never been there, so I can't tell you much."

Sasami nodded.

"And after that," Ranma continued, "I have to report in for work."

"Well I hope you'll sleep comfortably," Sasami chimed. "I hope you don't feel too crowded in here with us."

Ranma looked about, to her, the huge room and mentally shook her head.

_"Yep,_" she mused to herself she laid out her bedding. _"They would definitely find Tokyo too crowded."_

-

Ranma left the water closet and was heading for the room that she was sharing when a very subdued Tenchi approached her in the hallway.

"Um. Ranma?" Tenchi ventured carefully while scratching the back of his head. "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Ranma blinked at Tenchi and his demeanor.

_"I hope he is not upset over earlier,"_ she thought before saying. "Sure. What's on your mind?"

_"You are,_" he thought. "I really want to...," he stammered a bit. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that you girls were still in the bathroom."

Ranma giggled nervously, then smiled. "That's all right. Accidents happen."

"Thanks," Tenchi said with relief. "I was afraid you might think I was a pervert like my father."

Ranma smiled at the memory of a similar incident.

"Who said I didn't?" she said with mirth.

"Wh...what?" Tenchi stammered.

"Gotcha," Ranma said while playfully tweaking his nose. She then turned to make her way back to Sasami and Ayeka's room, she looked over her shoulder and smiled at him. "Goodnight, I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight," Tenchi replied, feeling warm all over as he absently felt the tip of his nose.

-

A dragonfly zipped away from the house and deep into the surrounding woods. The woods themselves were nothing more that a dark maze of trees and undergrowth in the darkness of night. Even with the seemingly impenetrable darkness, the dragonfly dodged between trees and circled a few times to be certain that it wasn't being followed. After it was convinced, it zoomed up a tree and landed gently on a squirrel that was in the midst of climbing up. The squirrel froze the instant that the dragonfly made contact.

Since the destruction of one of the transmitters, the artificial intelligence in charge of the surveillance of the Masaki household directed all its units to communicate directly. No transmissions were to be made unless something of high significance happened - and far enough away from the central controller.

The information was quickly uploaded into the squirrel and the dragonfly went back to its job, watching over the north side of the Masaki household. The squirrel took off, leaping from tree to tree, heading for the Central Controlling unit.

-  
-

NOTES:

On the last chapter: Wahhh! I didn't mean to be a tease! Wahhhh!

Ahem.

In the middle of writing this, I suffered from a terrible case of writer's block. I had the framework built for this and the next chapter, but filling in the details was killing me. Even some of my "anti-writer's block" stories I dabble in on the side to help through those times were hard pressed (I have a whole folder of that kind of stuff, one is developing enough to maybe make it here eventually). I just hope I don't have a bout like that again.

Thanks for reading.


	27. University Part 8

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

-  
-

University Part 8

-

Ranma shivered as the cool morning air penetrated the thin nightshirt she wore. She sat up groggy and disoriented. Shaking her head to clear it, she puzzled over her environment. Looking about her in the dim morning twilight, she discovered that she was in a small clearing surrounded by clumps of trees. Overhead the slightly clouded sky hung strangely over the treetops, almost as if it were about to pounce on the prone girl.

Looking about, there were no mountains to be seen anywhere and nothing looked familiar.

_"How did I get here?"_ Ranma thought as she climbed to her bare feet. _"Where am I?"_

Unsure of what was going on, took stock of herself and discovered that she was dressed as she was when she retired for the night. Ranma scanned the area around her with her eyes.

_"What's going on here?"_ she thought before theorizing, _"I bet this is one of the girls idea of a practical joke."  
_  
Using her ki senses, Ranma looked over her surroundings again in the hopes of picking up the ki trail of whoever left her in the middle of nowhere.

_"Nothing," _she thought bitterly as the morning coolness was slowly warming with the dawn. Her nosed twitched and stung a bit in the morning air. Ranma smiled,_ "I'll just look deeper."_

Tapping into her Senshi powers, Ranma clearly saw a trail heading off to the west.

_"Bingo," _she smirked to herself. _"I better hoof it, don't want anyone asking about me tree hopping."  
_  
It was odd of her to think that, but for some reason it seemed important at the moment.

The woods weren't too thick and allowed Ranma easy passage through the trees. Every now and then her balance was thrown as her feet sunk into undergrowth, but otherwise it was an easy hike. Occasionally, she would stop as the sensation of needing to sneeze seized her before passing. After an undetermined amount of fast paced walking, Ranma spied a familiar figure near the creek bed that paralleled the trail she'd been following.

"Tenchi!" Ranma called out, happy to see another person - especially since that other person was Tenchi.

"Ranma," Tenchi replied with a wave. "I've been looking for you."

Ranma's heart raced in excitement when she heard that, along with other pleasant sensations. Those sensations she quickly suppressed.

_"Stupid!"_ she berated herself for the umpteenth time. _"He's just a friend."_

The two met each other at the crest of the creek bank.

"What are you doing out here?" Tenchi asked as he neared Ranma.

"Oh nothing," Ranma answered, happy to be with him. "I think one of the girls was playing a joke. Don't worry about it."

"Come on, let's get you back to the house," Tenchi said sternly as he lead the way. "I'll have a few words with them and make-"

"Don't bother," Ranma stopped their walk and interrupted. "It was just a joke. Let it go."

Tenchi studied her for a moment before nodding.

"Okay. If you say let it go, I'll let it go," he said somewhat reluctantly.

As they resumed their walk back toward the house, Tenchi draped an arm around Ranma's waist and pulled her gently to his side. Ranma sighed and leaned into him and snaked her arm around his waist. The feeling of the warmth from Tenchi's body against hers filled her with contentment.

As Ranma smiled and enjoyed the sensation of Tenchi next to her, her nose started to twitch again. This time there was something else with it.

"Something wrong?" Tenchi asked, looking down on her, with concern.

"Just a nose itch. Had it since I got up," Ranma replied as she rubbed her nose.

Instead of making the sensation better it made it worse. Ranma rubbed her nose again in an effort to control what was going on. She stopped walking and concentrated on the itch in her nose, wishing she could sneeze and just get it over with. That is when Ranma became aware of something else that accompanied the twitching in her nose.

That something else grew dramatically at such a speed that it alarmed her. Something was not right.

"Ranma?" Tenchi questioned with renewed concern in his voice. "What's wrong?"

"I... I don't... know," Ranma worked out between the stinging sensations in her nose. "I... think I... gotta... sneeze."

She realized too late what the other accompanying sensation was.

Ranma tried to divorce the Senshi magic from the sneeze, but she became aware of it too late to do anything. Ranma let lose a single sneeze, involuntarily and loudly, and was helpless to stymie the tidal wave of power that was behind it. The last thing she saw was the horrified look on Tenchi's face as the very earth beneath them blew apart with the uncontrolled force of the sneeze that was powered by Ranma's Senshi magic.

Just before the world fractured, Ranma's eyes flew open. Self control kept her from screaming or crying. Sitting up shakily, Ranma got her heart rate under control as the last vestiges of the nightmare faded.

_"Man,"_ Ranma thought. _"It's been awhile since I had one that... bad."_

Ranma ran a shaky hand through her hair and looked over at the still sleeping forms of Ayeka and her sister, Sasami. They had invited her to share their room for the night more likely than not to keep an eye on her. She didn't mind, it was nice to have the company.

_"Least I didn't wake them,"_ Ranma thought as she clambered to her feet.

The room was nearly dark, the sun not yet over the mountains that surrounded Tenchi's home, but the room was dimly lit by the faint light of the coming morn. Using the little light provided, Ranma stealthily exited the room without disturbing the others and made her into the darker hallway. Feeling her way downstairs, she crossed the main room when her attention was drawn by the sound of soft snores. Puzzled by the sound, Ranma waited until her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room before locating the source of the sound.

It was Ryoko sleeping where Ranma first saw her the other day on one of the rafters overhead. Ranma thought it odd for the briefest of seconds before hitting on a idea.

_"She must be putting herself through some balance/awareness training_," Ranma concluded as she made her way out the back of the house and onto the pier jutting into the body of the lake._ "I remember doing something like that when I was a kid. That beam's gotta be more comfortable than a tree branch."_

With a good theory in mind, Ranma was satisfied and quickly dismissed the matter. After all, it made perfect sense and it was training and not too unlike what Ranma had been through.

Ranma stood and looked out across the dark mass of the lake. A few stars still shone to the west as the eastern sky started to glow with the first traces of the dawn. The moon that had dominated the night was now hidden behind the mountains to the west. The dark silhouette of the surrounding mountains to the east were contrasted with the pinkness of the sky.

The calm, dark waters of the lake were like a mirror that began to reflect the natural surroundings as the dawn warmed the sky. Ranma found the end of the pier and made herself comfortable by sitting cross-legged to clear her mind. More than ever, she planned on trying the techniques on the scroll that Master Asahi lent her to compartmentalize her power.

Ranma reflected as she sat. _"I forgot how it was, watching the birth of a new day."  
_  
Ranma sighed.

_"It's peaceful here,"_ she thought. _"I should go on more training trips during school breaks. It's relaxing."  
_  
Ranma continued to stare at the dark mass that was the lake. She prepared to clear her mind when other thoughts crept in, distracting her. After a few minutes of trying, she gave up and addressed the disturbing thoughts, hoping to put them at ease.

_"Dammit,_" she thought, _"I thought I had most of my... fears... taken care of."_

The memory of the dream made her shake a bit.

_"I was honing my skills to control my power better,"_ Ranma thought as she looked over the smooth surface of the lake. _"Doing that stopped the nightmares, so why is it bothering me now?"  
_  
Ranma sighed.

_"It's because I almost lost control sparring with Tenchi's grandfather. I don't have complete control over them like I'd hoped or I wouldn't have slipped," _Ranma thought._ "Stupid Senshi powers. Making me afraid to even sneeze."_

Ranma sighed again. There was the another aspect to the dream.

_"I wish I could figure out how I feel about Tenchi,"_ she thought somewhat remorsefully. _"I mean I haven't really known the guy a year - half a year maybe - and I think I might be..."  
_  
She shook her head, chasing the remaining thought from her head.

_"I'm such an idiot,"_ she scolded herself. _"I'm doing it again - letting some stupid romantic ideas cloud my judgment of him. He's a friend. I'm sure he feels the same way. With all the problems he had with girls I'm sure that he wouldn't be feeling like..."_

Ranma paused in thought, sagging psychically as she did.

_"... I'm feeling."_

Ranma sighed.

_"I am an idiot."_

The early morning wind picked up and gently brushed through Ranma's bangs. Ranma sat and enjoyed the sensation of the wind through her hair as she watched the waters in silence while she worked on finding her center._  
_  
"Ranma? Is anything the matter?" came a concerned voice from behind.

Ranma 'eeped' and spun on her bottom, almost tumbling off the pier. She regained her balance and faced the person who managed to sneak up on her.

It was Sasami with the ever present Ryo-Ohki on her shoulder.

Ranma quickly got her heart rate under control and smiled at the little girl.

"Nothing's the matter," Ranma said pleasantly. "I'm just an early riser. I didn't mean to get you up."

"Oh you didn't get me up," Sasami explained. "I get up this time everyday to start breakfast. I noticed that you were gone and then I saw you out here and thought something was wrong."

"I'm fine," Ranma reaffirmed gently. After a moment reflection she asked, "Do you need any help? I usually do some katas in the morning, but I would like to help if I could."

Sasami seemed to ponder the question while idly rubbing Ryo-Ohki.

"Okay," she happily replied. "But you don't really have to."

Ranma smiled at the younger girl.

"That's fine," Ranma said while reaching over and giving the animal on Sasami's shoulder a few strokes. "If nothing else, I can keep you company."

-

Washu was woken by the insistent beeping from the viewing mirror. Knowing that Tsunami wouldn't disturb her unless it was an emergency, Washu kicked off the covers, rubbed the sleep out of her eyes while crossing the lab and pressed the activation button. In a few moments the ghostly shape of Tsunami refined itself into a more solid looking form.

"Yes?" Washu asked anxiously in a voice still filled with sleep.

"The Queens are nearer than I thought," Tsunami said. "They had left decoys to make everyone think that they're still on Jurai. They were good decoys, I didn't spot them until I ran a bio-scan on them. The Queens left over four weeks ago."

"Four weeks!" Washu asked alarmed.

Tsunami nodded.

"The royal trees are the fastest that Jurai has," Washu pointed out. "With that it won't take them too long to get here."

Tsunami nodded. "They're sixteenth generation trees, it will only take about four or five weeks to reach Earth from Jurai."

Washu pondered the meaning of that. Sixteenth generation. That meant the the Royal Trees were the zenith of twenty thousand years of biomechanical engineering, splicing and breeding. Very fast, very powerful.

"If they left over four weeks ago - then they should show up anytime now," Washu said mostly to herself.

Silence fell between the two Techno-mages.

"And Fire Walker's here too," Washu said while rubbing her temples. "When it rains it pours."

"Tell Yosho that the Queens are going to show up anytime now. We must do all we can to keep Fire Walker from knowing what's going on without rousing her suspicions."

Washu nodded in agreement.

"Where's Fire Walker now?"

"I don't know," Washu answered, blinking. "I just got up."

"Find out where she is," Tsunami said. "We need to be more careful now than ever before."

Washu nodded. "I'll get on it. Let's hope things don't get more complicated."

An annoying buzz penetrated the vastness of the lab.

"What's that?" Tsunami asked worriedly.

Washu rushed to a console and studied the complex readouts.

"Are the Queens here?" Tsunami asked.

"Worse," Washu said as she turned an ashen face toward the image in the mirror. "Mihoshi is coming."

-

Ranma was in the kitchen helping Sasami prepare breakfast. The twin ponytailed girl said she could manage, but Ranma insisted on helping. While aiding Sasami, the two girls chatted about various subjects. Sasami was asking rather covertly, but still in an obvious way, about Ranma's feelings for Tenchi.

"He a good sparring partner and friend," were Ranma's replies to Sasami's attempts at subtlety.

The subject had just changed to Ryoko's sleeping habits when a distant booming sound, not unlike thunder, peeled the air. Soon after Ranma became aware of a faint droning sound that got louder and louder. Quickly the sound went from nothing to an almost overpowering wail. Ranma tried to isolate the direction but it seemed to come from all around. She considered using her Senshi senses to locate the disturbance, but after last night's dream she was reluctant to do so. Ranma also noted that Sasami seemed unfazed by the noise.

Turning to Sasami, she asked loudly over the noise over the growing wail, "What is that?"

"What?" Sasami replied.

"I said: Where is that noise coming from?" Ranma yelled the question.

"Oh, that. It's nothing!" Sasami yelled her answer in a cheery way.

Ranma blink-blinked and was considering going out to investigate when a large sound, like an explosion, rocked the room. Outside a heavy downpour erupted from the sky with thick raindrops falling hard against the ground. Puddles quickly formed as the rain continued for the briefest moment before stopping.

_"A cloudburst?"_ Ranma asked herself. _"I thought it only rained like that in Nerima."_

As she returned to attention to preparing the tamago-yaki, she mused_, "I was getting soaked all the time in those sudden downpours."_

The droning noise was gone, the only reminder was a faint ringing in Ranma's ears. Ranma put the weirdness of the situation behind her and turned most of her focus to helping Sasami prepare the meal.

"How many people do you think I'll need to make this for," Ranma asked as she arranged the square frying pans on the stovetop. Ranma needed to know the number of people to determine the amount of eggs to use.

Though she was resistant at first, since Ranma was a guest, Sasami did find it enjoyable to have company and help this early in the morning.

"Ummm... with nine of us - no wait ," Sasami paused and counted cutely with her fingers. "Tenchi's father won't be back until the weekend, but Mihoshi is here now... nine."

Ranma blinked-blinked at the young girl.

_"Mihoshi?"_ Ranma pondered. _"I don't remember being introduced to a Mihoshi."_

Ranma just shrugged her shoulders and continued with the meal preparations.

"Nine it is," Ranma said with a smile and a nod as she began to break the eggs into a large bowl. Next to the bowl were the rest of the ingredients: sugar, dashi soup stock, and soy sauce.

When Ranma reached over to retrieve a wash rag from the nearby sink to clean up a minor spill, she noted through the window the puddles on the ground, the beauty of the mountains and the clear sunny morning.

The clear sunny morning.

_"Strange, it was clear before it rained and... it's still clear," _Ranma thought as looked more carefully through the window at the sky and the fact of its clearness seeped into her._ "What in the heck? It was raining cats and dogs just a few min-"_

Ranma's brain seized up at the sight before her and did a double take.

She blinked, closed her eyes, shook her head clear and looked again.

Still unsure at what she was seeing, Ranma blink-blinked, looked away and puzzled over what she thought she saw...

... and looked again to be sure.

_"Fish?"_

Ranma blink-blinked again and rubbed her eyes with the back of her clean hand. Sure enough, fish were flopping around here and there in several of the puddles that had formed after the cloudburst.

_"Fish," _she confirmed. _"How did fish get into the yard?"_

Ranma opened her mouth to ask the blue haired girl next to her what was going on. Looking over, Ranma watched as Sasami continued with making breakfast, unconcerned at the weirdness of fish raining from the sky. Ranma looked back out the window, with its puddles and occasional fish flopping around and back to Sasami.

Sasami looked up and smiled back at Ranma with a big, broad grin that was completely and truly disarming. The more Ranma considered asking, the less important it seemed to be. Weirder things had happened in her life, or lives as it were, so why should now be any different? With a shrug of her shoulders, Ranma continued to help Sasami prepare breakfast.

_"I'll figure it out later," _Ranma thought absently.

-

Ranma and Sasami had just finished placing the food onto the long, low table as everyone filed into the room.

"Good morning," Sasami cheerfully chimed to each person as they entered.

"Good morning," Ranma also sang out, Sasami's natural good nature having rubbed off.

There was a chorus of 'good mornings' from the various people that filed into the room, including the newcomer: a blond haired young woman in a uniform of some type. To Ranma's surprise, most of the household came in from outside and not the stairs where the sleeping quarters were located. Ayeka was the only person to emerge from the stairs and Ryoko was already in the room, having slept there. Tenchi's grandfather and Washu were escorting the blond haired and slightly wet young woman to the table where they all sat down on the surrounding cushions.

Ranma sat in the spot offered to her with Sasami on one side and Tenchi on the other. She smiled at her table mates and made small talk with Tenchi, Katsuhito, and Sasami.

Ranma would swear that she could almost feel the pinpricks from the glares that Ryoko and Ayeka were giving her while trying to not look like they were giving her glares. In spite of that, each girl was trying to be overly helpful to her and especially to Tenchi. Tenchi bore the brunt of the attention well and kept the conversation light by focusing it on school and the sparring sessions that he and Ranma had shared. It was funny how when Tenchi talked about Ranma, the other girls would try to be extra nice to distract him.

Ranma found the behavior almost comical, but was careful not to provoke the situation further.

_"How does Tenchi put up with it?"_ she thought. Then it dawned on her. _"How did I put up with it?"_

During the meal, Ranma eyed the newcomer. She had been introduced as Mihoshi Kuramitsu and she seemed an odd duck from what Ranma could tell. Not that there was anything wrong with that, most the people that Ranma ran into in her life were - unique and about as far from normal as you could get. Mihoshi had a ditzy air about her that Ranma noted seemed to grate on Washu's nerves.

Mihoshi was wearing what could only be described as a uniform. The uniform consisted of grey slacks that fastened far above the hipline and a blue short bodied jacket with matching grey long sleeves and orange cuffs. A matching hat with a white pom-pom donned atop of Mihoshi's blond hair completed the look.

_"I don't know what to make of this one," _Ranma thought as she eyed the young women speculatively._ "She's dressed in what seems like a military uniform, but not any I've seen before... does she work at an image club?"  
_  
With knowledge she gleaned from her dorm-mates, Ranma new that some of the girls 'dressed up' for the customers fantasies. However, the only hole in this theory was that none of the girls she'd spoken with ever wore their costumes in public. Ranma dismissed that notion.  
_  
"Maybe she works at one of those fancy restaurants that go for a trademark look or something,_" Ranma reflected with a mental shrug. _"It's probably nothing."_

Ranma didn't mind the apparent airheadedness of the blond, but some of the things that Mihoshi said didn't make sense. At one point during the meal Mihoshi piped up, "Washu, my ship has broken down again. Could you fix it for me, please?"

The breakfast table froze and Ranma noticed everyone's discomfort. Not fully understanding the situation, Ranma concluded that Mihoshi was referring to a boat or something - after all, the house backed to a sizable lake. The only thing that puzzled Ranma was why ask a kid to fix your boat?

The tension around the breakfast table was broken as Washu answered Mihoshi.

"We'll discuss this later," Washu stated firmly.

Mihoshi nodded her head so quickly that Ranma was certain that she heard something rattling.

Ranma shrugged off the odd behavior and continued with her meal.

Breakfast had just finished when Tenchi commented, "The tamago-yaki was really good today, Sasami. Thank you."

Sasami beamed, but corrected Tenchi, "You're welcome Lor, I mean Tenchi, but it was Ranma that prepared the tamago-yaki this morning."

Ryoko and Ayeka stared at their guest, suddenly feeling a little inadequate. Tenchi ignored the reactions of the girls and complimented Ranma on her tamago-yaki .

"It was really good, Ranma," Tenchi said with a smile that just made Ranma feel mushy. "Thank you for sharing it."

"You're welcome," Ranma replied, feeling her face warm up as she blushed. She controlled herself and dispelled it before anyone hopefully noticed.

"Oh," Mihoshi rang out. "Has anyone heard any word from the Galactic Pol-"

"We'll talk about it later!" Washu and Ayeka roared, cutting Mihoshi off.

Mihoshi 'eeked' and ducked under the low table. Ranma blink-blinked as the two girls yelling drew her attention away from Tenchi, and because she was busy paying attention to Tenchi, she missed Mihoshi's question completely.

Ranma felt that breakfast had been a tense affair. Every time she tried to speak with or ask Mihoshi a question, no matter how innocent, Ayeka, Washu and even Tenchi would distract or redirect her. It was like no one wanted her to talk to the blond.

But it was Washu that troubled Ranma the most.

_"There's something about that kid,"_ Ranma thought with a slight chill running down her spine. _"She reminds me of someone... or something. But what?" _

"Ranma?" Sasami asked. "I know you're a guest, but it was really nice this morning. Could you help me with clearing the table and the dishes?"

Looking at the 'puppy dog eyes of persuasion' that were a thousand times more powerful than anything Usagi could muster, Ranma agreed.

-

Ranma was helping wash the dishes with Sasami when she noticed the wind pick up outside and the shadow of a cloud darken the area. A strange, eerie sound was faintly heard that raised the hairs on the back of her head. As quickly as the sound came, it waned and disappeared. The cloud moved on restoring the sunny brightness of the day.

Ranma thought about the oddity, but decided to file it away as something to look into later. The mental list of weird stuff she had picked up on had grown and Ranma would decide on whether to look into or not - later. For the moment, normalcy had returned and she was enjoying Sasami's company.

-

Yosho greeted the two women being led into the room by Tenchi from the dock side of the house.

"Queen Misaki, mother," he said formally with a bow. "Washu informed me of your visit and the reason for it."

This raised eyebrows of the two newcomers.

"But first," Yosho continued. "I must tell you we have a guest and we need to be... subtle if we can, until she leaves."

Yosho's mother, Funaho nodded understandably. Funaho was a woman with an air of serene control about her. She wore a loose pant-suit like garb with a light green robe with red shoulder pads. Her long, dark hair framed her face as it cascaded down her front.

Her companion was dressed similarly in flowing robes of brown with green shoulder pads. Her bright blue hair hung down her back in a large, high ponytail. Her magenta eyes shone brightly in her heart shaped face. Unlike Funaho, this woman had a perky, happy disposition.

"You can say that we are your sisters that dropped by unexpectedly," she said. "Call me Funaho. That would sound less suspicious than calling me 'mother'."

Queen Misaki piped in, "You can call me Aunty."

Yosho nodded.

"Now, before we begin," Misaki said. "Where are my daughters?"

"I'll go get them," Tenchi volunteered.

"Before you do," Yosho said stopping Tenchi with a upraised hand. Yosho then turned his attention back to his guests. "I think it would be a good idea if you two changed into something less... noticeable."

The two women nodded in understanding.

-

Tenchi poked his head into the kitchen and froze at the sight of Ranma gracefully moving about, assisting Sasami in putting the dishes away. Momentarily mesmerized by Ranma putting some of the cookware up in a high place, her back stretching and arching as she did. This made her form press tightly against the shirt she was wearing, accentuating her figure. Tenchi felt his face heat up as the memory of the unexpected sight of Ranma's unclad body in the bathroom the night before pushed its way into his mind.

_"Oh man,"_ he lamented to himself. _"I am a pervert."  
_  
Withdrawing from the doorway, he held his nose and let the blush and other hormonal effects pass before sticking his head into the kitchen again.

"Sasami," he said with a squeak, the pitch of his voice guaranteed that he got both girls attention. He cleared his throat. "Your... you have a visitor."

-

Ayeka entered the main room with Tenchi just as Sasami and Ranma did. She froze at the sight. Queen Misaki was here.

Her mother.

Ayeka eyes widened before her shoulders sagged. She had wanted to make and maintain a good impression on Ranma, but with her mother here...

"Mommy!" Sasami cried and bolted into the blue haired woman's arms. Mother and daughter were busy smothering each other with affection, ignoring everyone else in the room. Between the two, there was a healthy chorus of 'mommy' and 'little Sasami' as each hugged the other for all they was worth. Misaki's smile was as wide as humanly possible as she beamed at her youngest child.

Having dealt with Misaki's affections before and not wanting to risk being face planted into the walls, Ryoko looked down in bemusement from the safety of her rafter.

"Hello mother," Ayeka said to the odd, blue haired woman with a slight bow. She widened her smile and cocked her head cutely before continuing, "This is such a surprise. We weren't expecting you."

Still holding Sasami close to her, Queen Misaki's smile faded slowly into a frown. The expression on her face as she looked at Ayeka betrayed a mixture of sternness, hurt and displeasure. Ranma studied the scene in confusion.

_"I don't know what Ayeka did,"_ Ranma thought. _"But the temperature definitely dropped."  
_  
Ayeka took a deep breath and a drop of sweat made its way down the side of her face. This was so embarrassing - especially in front of a guest. She also knew Ryoko never let her live it down and who knew what Ranma would do.

But she sucked it in and got it over with.

"Mommy!" Ayeka said with her hands clasped in front of her and a wide smile plastered on her face.

With that Queen Misaki perked up with an equally wide smile and brought her hands close together before her.

"Little Ayeka," she said happily.

"Mommy!" Ayeka said stepping forward, wishing she could crawl under something and hide.

Misaki threw her arms out wide as Ayeka rushed and embraced her mother. Sasami happily folded herself into what turned into a group hung.

Ranma stared at the scene.

_"I can see where Sasami gets her personality from,"_ she thought with a thin smile. _"There's defiantly a family resemblance. She seems so... enthusiastic about her children."_

Ranma noted that Ayeka was blushing furiously in embarrassment.

_"Ayeka doesn't seem too happy about being part of that group hug,"_ Ranma noted as the smile faded from her lips.

_"Why would she be embarrassed?" _Ranma puzzled over what she was seeing, trying to figure out what was so embarrassing.

_"Just because it's her mother?"_ Ranma wondered.

Her mother.

Ranma watched the scene unfold as the older women fussed over the younger ones. Sasami was basking in the glow of her mother's affections while Ayeka looked like she wanted to die. She was definitely uncomfortable with the attention from her mother.

Her mother.

Ranma felt a deep emotion well up inside her, reach out, and stab her in the heart. For some reason this scene had touched a part of her that she had suppressed and buried deep within. Things were starting to get a little blurry when Ranma hurriedly excused herself from the room and made her way out the back door and onto the dock that jutted out into the lake.

-

She was alone. She needed to be alone to deal with this.

She sat there watching the waters lap against one of the support beams without really watching it. She couldn't stop the flood of thoughts and emotions that ran rampant inside her.

_"Damn it! Every time I think I'm over it, something reminds me, or gets to me, or something..."_ she lamented to herself. _"Did my mother truly hate me so much that she let me go for a worthless piece of paper?"_

Ranma sighed heavily and fell further into depression as her heart of hearts answered with a 'yes, she did hate you that much'.

_"It's not fair,"_ she complained mentally. _"Everyone that I know, had or have parents that loved them. Mine... my real ones used me, abused me and threw me away. I was nothing to them."_

She shifted her weight, _"Why am I thinking about this? Why does this still bother me after all this time?"_

Ranma considered that question as she looked out across the lake.

"Are you alright?"

For the second time that morning, Ranma let an 'eep' escape her lips and almost ended up in the lake again at the unexpected question. Turning she saw the cyan haired girl, Ryoko, standing behind her.

"I'm fine," Ranma answered almost defensively. "I'm always all right."

"Right," Ryoko snorted, "and I'm a demon."

Ranma blink-blinked at her. "Huh?"

"Never-mind," Ryoko said dismissively. "Tenchi got tied up with family matters and sent me to check on you."

"That's nice of him," Ranma commented. She cocked an eyebrow and asked, "So do you have any family?"

Ryoko shrugged nonchalantly. "I have a mother - sort of."

"Yeah... not me," Ranma whispered mostly to herself.

Ranma tried to shake herself out of her depression. It didn't work. Ranma sighed and decided to distract herself - something that she had lately become very good at - maybe too good at. She turned her full attention to the strange woman near her.

"When you asked earlier about sparring, were you serious?" Ranma asked.

Ryoko shrugged uncertainly, paused and then nodded.

"Yes, but I don't think Tenchi would be happy if I sparred with you," Ryoko explained. "I may not be trained, but I'm tough."

Ranma smirked, a perfect way to get out of her funk.

"Wanna spar?" Ranma asked Ryoko.

Ryoko smiled an evil smile, but a smile none the less. "Sure," she replied. "But like I said, Tenchi wouldn't be happy with me if I did and I don't want Tenchi mad at me."

"We just going to spar," Ranma said with an explosive exhale. "It's not like we're going to kill each other or anything."

Ryoko sized Ranma up, thought a few seconds and then nodded.

"Okay," the cyan haired girl said. "But I expect you to explain to Tenchi if he gets mad at me."

"I promise, on my honor," Ranma said resolutely. "Since this is a friendly little match just to see how we stack up, let's stick to hand to hand. No weapons."

Ryoko nodded in agreement as she mentally reminded herself to not use any of her abilities.

Moving to off the pier to a open area beside the house, the two woman faced off against each other. For a brief moment, in which both sized the other up, all was still. Not even the gentle summer breeze blew as time seemed to stop.

Then things moved very fast.

Ryoko started with a straightforward attack: a punch to Ranma's face that would have taken her down if it connected. Ranma easily dodged and took advantage of the extended arm by grabbing it and using it to throw Ryoko. Ryoko let out a surprised yelp as she landed ungracefully on her bottom with her legs splayed.

Letting out a low growl, Ryoko picked herself up off the ground, dusted off her back side and attacked again. This time she got close to Ranma, inside her guard, trying to make it harder for Ranma to dodge. Much to Ryoko's amazement and chagrin, Ranma seemed to flow around her punches unscathed. Ranma was also able to go on the offensive and tag Ryoko along her torso and back in several places. The tags were not hard enough to hurt a normal person much less Ryoko, but they did signal to her that Ranma could've crippled her if she wanted to.

The two combatants broke apart.

"Care to take this a notch higher?" a frustrated Ryoko asked with a slight edge to her words.

Ranma raised an eyebrow.

_"She's powering up her ki or whatever,"_ Ranma realized. _"This might get interesting."_

Ranma tapped into her own ki and nodded.

The two resumed their play.

-

After the family reunion had passed, the youths were excused so that the adults could speak about matter of import.

"Now Yosho," Queen Funaho said firmly. "If Washu has explained the situation on Jurai, then you know things are quite serious. We have permitted you, Tenchi and the rest to stay here, but because of the growing unrest we must insist that you and everyone return home."

Yosho opened his mouth to comment, closed it and thought a bit before speaking. "Home?" he objected. "As far as Tenchi and I are concerned, this is home. I'm not goin-"

"Before we get too far into this discussion about what Yosho should or shouldn't do," Washu piped in. "We had better move to my lab for security reasons."

The group fell silent.

"Security reasons?" Yosho asked. "What security reasons?"

Washu thought for a brief instant, then answered.

"I discovered something unsettling a few days ago," Washu said while crossing her arms. "I'll explain when we get to a more secure-"

The rest of Washu's remarks were lost in the resounding noise of an explosion from outside the house.

"What in the world?" Funaho asked worriedly.

A loud 'hiyaa' was heard from outside followed by another loud bang. A sound, reminiscent of hail pelting the roof, was heard as earth and rock rained down from the sky.

Everybody in the room looked at one another before rushing outside to see what was the matter.

-

Ranma noted the ki on Ryoko was about as weird as the ki on Tenchi and Katsuhito. She would have dismissed it as a family trait except Ryoko's ki seemed to be centered in and around some jewelry she wore.

_"She must use her gems to focus her ki with,"_ Ranma theorized. _"Why in the heck would someone teach her to focus her ki that way? The gems would become a crutch."  
_  
Ranma dodged a flurry of punches that was launched by Ryoko, all the while wearing a huge grin that plastered itself on her face. Twice Ryoko had attempted a left/right combo that Ranma blocked effectively with her arms, leaving Ryoko wide open. However, as close as they were, almost nose to nose, a kick would have been difficult - even for Ranma. In a situation like that, Ranma preferred dishing out a head butt, but knowing a head butt would hurt, Ranma never capitalized on the advantage.

_"I gotta think of some way to let her know she's wide open,"_ Ranma thought as she tapped a few places on Ryoko's torso.

While dodging another round of punches while returning the blows with taps along Ryoko's right arm and shoulder, Ranma's grin broke into a full blown smile as she hit upon a way.

_"Heh, this is going to be so devious,"_ Ranma snickered to herself.

Ryoko for her part, was frustrated. She had tried everything to land a blow on the elusive redhead, but nothing worked. Ranma proved to be too fast, too agile and too well trained to fall for any of the feints that she tried.

_"She can't be human,"_ Ryoko thought as another series of taps raked across her side. _"No one can be that fast._"

The thought of teleporting and catching Ranma by surprise had crossed Ryoko's mind several times, however the order to keep everything as normal as possible still rang in her ears. On top of Tenchi and Yosho's edict on normalcy, the last two years had tempered Ryoko's impulsiveness. Though she was still passionate about Tenchi, she had learned to keep her head.

Shelving teleportation or anything else 'abnormal', Ryoko tried for a quick one-two combo that the smaller girl blocked easily. She growled in frustration as they broke apart, only to have Ranma chase her down and deliver a series of more taps along her front.

After a few more minutes of trading blows, during which Ryoko failed to score once, and throwing ki balls at each other, Ryoko tried her left/right combo again and as Ranma did before, she blocked both arms. This time though, instead of letting the moment pass, Ranma leaned forward to deliver a peck on the tip of Ryoko's nose.

That was the plan.

Instead Ryoko saw Ranma lean forward. Unable to block because her arms were tangled with Ranma's, Ryoko leaned back and away to escape whatever Ranma was going to do. As Ryoko leaned back, Ranma leaned forward more and contact was made - slightly lower than Ranma had planned.

Ryoko eyes bulged out as her and Ranma's lips connected. Ranma's eyes were equally coming out of their orbits.

Ryoko found herself sitting on the ground, wearing a stunned look on her face. Ranma was on all fours over her with a look that mirrored Ryoko's. Their faces were mere inches apart. Time stood still and no sound was heard as both women's eyes locked on the others in embarrassment.

Slowly time sped up and Ranma started to chuckle. Ryoko looked as the redhead stood, giggling away and blinked as she offered a hand up. Seconds ticked by as Ryoko eventually found the humor in the situation and began giggling in return and took Ranma's hand. Ranma pulled Ryoko to her feet.

"Sorry about that," Ranma said between giggles. "You had an opening and I wanted to point it out. I didn't mean to..."

"It's okay," Ryoko interrupted as she waved Ranma off. Looking about them at the small craters here and there, Ryoko commented, "I think we got carried away. I hope Tenc-"

"RYOKO!" came a roar from behind the girls. Turning, Ranma saw Tenchi stride purposely toward them and quickly put two and two together.

Ryoko 'eeped' and ducked behind Ranma.

"Wait!" Ranma cried, keeping between Tenchi and Ryoko with arms outstretched. "I asked her to spar! She didn't do anything that I didn't agree with!"

This brought Tenchi up short.

"You asked her?" he quietly asked Ranma.

"Yeah," Ranma answered with a nod while lowering her arms. "And it was great too. What she lacks in technique," Ryoko scowled slightly at that, "she more than makes for in tenacity. It was great."

Tenchi looked back and forth between Ranma and Ryoko. Ryoko seemed tense under Tenchi's gaze and Ranma didn't seem too worse for wear. Deciding that no harm was done Tenchi nodded his head. "Okay," he finally said. He looked about the grounds and noticed the destruction that marked the spar and quipped, "I see you two did almost as much damage as we did when we first met."

Ranma blushed at the memory and pulled at the base of her ponytail, "Sorry about that. I'll get right on setting everything right."

"That's okay," Sasami perked up. "Why don't you two get cleaned up. After such a vigorous workout, I'm sure you both need a bath."

-

Ranma and Ryoko bathed quickly together and were heading back to join the rest of the household in the family room when Sasami intercepted them.

"Ranma? Could you help me please?" the little girl asked in a way that swayed Ranma without trying.

"Of course," Ranma replied and followed the purple haired girl.

Sasami was really enjoying Ranma's visit and her willingness to help.

In very short order, Ranma helped Sasami by carrying a tea service while Sasami carried a tray with cookies into the family room. Sasami had liked Ranma willingness to help and found herself enjoying her company.

_"I can see why they need such a big place," _Ranma thought as she stepped into the room. _"With this many people popping in and out, you'd need the space."  
_  
After Ranma set the tray down, she settled into her seat. Ranma sat next to Tenchi, who made sure that the spot next to him was open for her, opposite Katsuhito and Washu. To her right were Sasami, Ayeka, and Mihoshi, to her left were the two woman introduced to Ranma as Misaki and Katsuhito's sister, Funaho. Ryoko was back on her rafter, looking down on everyone.

"Hello," Ranma greeted as formally as she could while tugging nervously at the base of her ponytail. "My name is Ranma Yonai."

"It is a pleasure to meet you young lady," Funaho said. "Tell me, what were you doing out there?"

"That? Just some martial arts," Ranma explained, taking the opportunity to reaffirm Ryoko's innocence. "I asked Ryoko to spar with me."

"I meant when you were on the ground on top of Ryoko," Funaho said with a hint of tease in her voice. "That certainly didn't look like any combat art I know."

Ranma's face flushed, turning as red as her hair.

"That was an accident," she stammered out. "I was trying to think of a way to let Ryoko know that she left herself open to a head butt, and that was all that came to mind."

"I think it was romantic," Misaki said with a giggle.

Ranma groaned as the rest of the room chuckled at her expense.

"So," Ayeka began. "Do you spar with Tenchi like that?"

"No," Ranma answered. "We concentrate on armed combat, not hand to hand."

"No head butting in kendo?" Funaho asked.

"Not formally," Ranma explained. "But in a real combat situation, anything goes."

"So you haven't... you didn't...," Ayeka began, paused, then stopped. "Never mind."

The conversation resumed along more safe topics such as family, school and work.

-

It was a beautiful day as the combatants circled each other between charging and breaking.

Unlike the previous day, Ranma was thoroughly enjoying herself. Tenchi took the fight up a notch, but it was well below where 'The Border' was so the spar was well within her comfort zone. Tenchi was trying many of the moves that his grandfather had used the previous day, but not as skillfully.

For her part, Ranma met Tenchi's assault with vigor and sped up her attacks accordingly. She came close to nailing him a few times, but Tenchi's skill kept her from scoring any points.

When they had first started sparring in the afternoon, the pair had a small audience made up of most the household. But as the match passed its second hour, the witnesses lost interest and wandered back into the house. Even then, Ranma knew that they were probably being watched, just from a more comfortable place.

"Wanna take a break?" Tenchi asked as he huffed for air.

Ranma, also breathing heavily, nodded.

In spite of the knowledge that they were probably being watched, Ranma and Tenchi sat back to back as was their tradition after a vigorous sparring match.

"I notice that you're better than I remember," Ranma commented. "You stepped up in speed and strength."

Tenchi panted while he nodded.

"Yeah," Tenchi said with a hint of humor. "After watching you with grandfather yesterday, I figure I wouldn't hold back as much as I have been."

Ranma sat up and spun, facing Tenchi's back.

"You've been holding back on me?" she asked slightly hurt.

Feeling Ranma move, Tenchi turned and face her.

"No!" he defended himself. "I was only joking. Besides, you were holding back on me - weren't you?"

Ranma thought a moment before answering. It was true in a way. She had been holding back, only fighting with her natural born skill and using her ki sparingly. Her Senshi power - forget it, there'd no way that anyone could beat her if she did that. Besides that would be cheating.

_"My Senshi powers were **given** to me, I didn't earn them,"_ she thought.

"Yes, "she said tentatively. "But only a little. I'm trying to hone my skills by not depending on my ki so much."

_"Besides," _she thought. _"If I can't nail down when I cross the line... I can't really trust myself."  
_  
Tenchi regarded her for a moment.

"You know, I would like to hone my skill too," he said. "I'll tell you what - let's pick up the pace of our sparring and stop at a level we feel comfortable with. Deal?"

Ranma nodded and smiled at him, "Sounds good. As long as we don't tear anything up like the first time we met."

Tenchi smiled. Ranma swore she almost swooned.

_"Idiot!"_ she berated herself quickly. _"Think! He's only a friend!"_

"It was an interesting way to meet," he said while grinning broadly. "I wouldn't want to repeat it though."

Ranma nodded slightly at the statement.

"Wanna spar some more?"

Ranma cocked her head and thought.

"Nah," she answered. "I want some energy for karaoke tonight. Are we going to invite Mihoshi with us?"

"I haven't asked her yet," Tenchi replied. "I guess I should with Sasami, Ryoko and Ayeka coming too."

Ranma nodded.

-

"Here we are," Tenchi announced.

The six youths stood outside a big building - well, five youths and one youthful looking seven hundred year old demon. Ranma had heard of the large Karaoke bars in Tokyo, but never been in one. Here in Okayama was one larger than she could imagined.

"How did you find this place?" Ayeka asked.

"A couple of weeks ago I called and asked a school buddy of mine," Tenchi explained. "He said this was the best place he knew of."

The front of the karaoke bar was brightly neoned up with the club's signs. A banner-like neon sign proclaimed the place to be The Mountain Song. The front was all glass that afforded a clear view of the activities in the club. Not only was the club was larger as far as footprint went, it was also two stories. The club used the extra space for balconies that overlooked the dance floor.

Ranma thought it was awesome. "Wow," Ranma said genuinely surprised. "It looks really nice."

"Let's go," Tenchi said as he grabbed Ranma's hand. Ranma in turn grabbed Sasami's not wanting the little girl to get lost. Tenchi lead them through the glass doors and into the club interior with Mihoshi, Ryoko and Ayeka following behind at their heels.

The main floor was laid out similar to the Cute Rabbit back in Tokyo, with an elevated stage, tables around the dance floor and a long bar along one end of the room. The lighting wasn't as fancy as the club back in Tokyo, but the size of the club surprised Ranma. It was much larger on the inside that it looked on the outside and unlike the Cute Rabbit, this karaoke bar had room-sized studios in the back for private parties.

"You want me to grab one of the back rooms?" Tenchi half-yelled into Ranma's ear above the din of the music.

"Nah," Ranma loudly replied as she looked about the club, her heart rate went up as she felt the energy in the room. "The bigger the crowd, the more fun it is."

Ryoko and and Ayeka were obviously unsure of what to do, Sasami was just taking in the whole thing with a fascinated look on her face. Ranma pointed out an open table and motioned for Tenchi to head for it. Sasami followed Tenchi as Ranma noticed that the their other three companions were so busy taking in the club scene that they remain rooted to the spot. She gathered them up by pulling them by their arms and followed Tenchi through the crowd.

"C'mon," Ranma said to the other girls. "You don't want to get lost."

Mihoshi, Ryoko and Ayeka linked hands and allowed themselves to be pulled along by the redhead and soon were seated at a rectangular table.

"First time doing this?" Ranma asked and was rewarded with a nod from each of them. "Don't worry,' Ranma said with a smile. "You're going to have fun."

Ranma stared at the four girls, only Sasami seemed to be enjoying herself. Ranma became aware that she had sat next to Tenchi. Very close. Not wanting the girls to get the wrong impression, she acted.

"C'mon, Ranma said as she rose. "Let's go."

Grabbing Ryoko and Sasami's arms she half lead, half dragged them toward where the playlist books were.

"She seems... very enthusiastic," Ayeka said primly and carefully. "You two do this often?"

Tenchi sighed.

"This your first time?" Ranma asked again to Ryoko and Sasami as she leafed through the book. Ranma was delighted to find that 'The Mountain Song' must have used the same music service that 'The Cute Rabbit' did. The playlists were almost identical.

Ryoko nodded her head as she watched the redhead flip through the book quickly before stopping at a certain page. Sasami was busy watching a twenty-something man singing on the stage.

"Don't worry, once you relax and go with it - you'll have fun."

-

"So," Queen Funaho said. "Are these Senshi a threat to the Empire?"

The four of them had moved to Washu's Lab for security reasons to continue their discussion in detail.

"I don't think that they're a threat unless we threaten them," Washu answered. "But we are going to have to deal with them at some point. The sooner the better."

"What are you going to do?"

"First, I am going to see if Queen Serenity is around. If possible, we must locate her and deal through her. If the Queen is not around, then we need to find the princess."

"How are you going to do that?"

"When Ranma leaves, I'll have the ability to track her," Washu explained. "Hopefully she will lead me to the rest of the Senshi and the Queen."

Silence fell among those in the lab.

"Speaking of spying, are you sure about what you found earlier this week?" Yosho asked.

Washu looked at Yosho through half lidded eyes.

"Sorry," he said. "Stupid question."

"How long do you think you were spied on?"

"I really can't venture a guess," Washu said as she shook her head.

-

Sasami and Mihoshi descended the stage amid applause from the clubers.

"This is fun!" Sasami chirped as she took her seat. "We should do this more often."

"I don't think it's very," Ayeka began.

"Look Ayeka!" Sasami happily interrupted. "Ryoko, Tenchi and Ranma are going to sing!"

Ayeka looked toward the raised platform and sure enough, the three youths took microphones from the stand. Ranma punched a few buttons on the console and within a few seconds a heavy bass began thumping.

Ranma opened the song followed by Ryoko. Ryoko had loosened up so much she was dragging Tenchi or Ranma onto the stage with her, doing duets. Tenchi joined in with his deeper voice adding to the two girls. It sounded very good.

Ayeka concentrated on Ranma.  
_  
"She can cook, she does martial arts, she's talented,"_ she thought, _"and she's good looking."  
_  
Ayeka sat listened to the trio on the stage with Sasami and Mihoshi.

_"I hope that Tenchi doesn't fall for her," _Ayeka's eyes narrowed at that possibly. _"I may have to take - subtle steps to ensure that he doesn't."  
_  
-

"Instead of me going back to Jurai," Yosho said in a very serious tone, "I'll stay here an act as a Ambassador of the Jurai Empire. Negotiate with the Senshi, come to some type of agreement."

"You are needed on Jurai," Queen Funaho said evenly. "This just convinces me more of the need for you to return home. If not for the Empire, then for the security of yourself and your family."

"Mother. We have had this discussion be," Yosho began only to be cut off.

"That was before the Empire got into this shape," Queen Funaho interjected. "We know how you feel. However, are you going to let your personal feelings interfere with your duty and in the end possibly endanger everything?"

Yosho stood with one hand rubbing his chin, deep in thought.

"Okay, I'll return to Jurai, but I will not take the throne. I plan on returning after the crisis is over," he finally said. "Tenchi stays here though. This is his is his home and has no reason to leave."

The three women looked at one another in silence. Funaho was visibly thinking deeply. She sighed then broke the silence.

"That may not be a bad idea," she said to three surprised people. "But if he does stay, Tenchi should be told what's going on."

Washu, Yosho and Misaki blink-blinked audibly.

"Why?" Washu asked.

"I like the idea of having an Ambassador here to deal with the Senshi," she explained. "And if I am not mistaken, Tenchi has already broken ground with this Fire Walker."

Silence fell once again in the room.

"Alright," Yosho said. "But I don't think Tenchi needs to be told anything yet."

"Why not?" Funaho asked. "Don't you think he needs to know what he is dealing with?"

"Yes, but not yet," came Yosho's firm reply. "You said yourself that things may not be as out of hand here as you thought. I don't see any need to alarm more people that necessary. Besides I think Washu would be better at negotiating with the Senshi than Tenchi."

"Why?"

"She seems to know more about them than anyone," Yosho pointed out. "In any case, I wouldn't what to burden Tenchi needlessly until we know more about what's going on."

"But what if these Senshi become a threat, then what?"

"From what Washu has told me, there wouldn't be anything we could do about it anyway," Yosho answered.

The two queens thought for a moment, shared a look, then nodded as one.

"Okay," Funaho spoke. "Tenchi and the rest can stay here. Washu could look after them and deal with the Senshi on behalf of the Empire. What about the spying? Can you do anything about that?"

"Yes," Washu said. "I've been working on some hunter/killer anti-spying devices. They should be ready in about four days."

"What are they keyed on?" Funaho asked.

"It monitors any possible micro transmissions between the spying devices and their controlling unit," Washu answered. "When the spying devices report in to their local controller, my hunter/killers should be able to filter out the background, identify the signal and use that to track them down."

Funaho nodded in approval.

"Anything else we should know?" Yosho asked.

"We'll be keeping a patrol nearby to evacuate everyone just in case," Queen Misaki said. "We can't have anything happen to the royal family here."

-

With Ayeka off to the powder room and Ryoko, Tenchi and Sasami on or near the stage, Ranma took the opportunity up strike up a conversation with Mihoshi as they sat at their table. Mihoshi was bobbing her head to the music making her hair move in time also. It reminded Ranma of the way Tetsuyuki's, Megumi's boyfriend, hair moved when he bobbed his head.

"So - what so you do?" Ranma asked idly as she sipped a C.C.Lemon.

"I'm a Detective, First Class with the Galaxy Police," the blond replied - blondly - while still bobbing her head.

Ranma blinked, contemplated several several possible meanings beyond the most obvious one and stared blankly at the blond as she practically danced to the music in her seat. Seeing how Mihoshi's explanation was not impossible, for Ranma had been briefed by Ami on the existence of the Starlights, Ranma seriously considered the possibility.

Then discarded it.

_"Extra-terrestrial intelligence,"_ Ranma thought while watching Mihoshi bob her head to the music._ "Not in this case."_

Ranma decided to grasp at straws.

"Is that like a band or something?" Ranma ventured.

"Oh no," Mihoshi said distractedly. "It's part of the Civilian Enforcement Branch of the Juraian Empire."

Ranma stared blankly again at the woman as Mihoshi started to shimmy in her seat.

"Err... yeah," Ranma said as she thought, _"Man. Some people get too involved in their cosplaying."  
_  
Shaking her head of any thoughts, Ranma nudged the blond with her arm.

"Say, would you like to dance?" Ranma asked, getting bored with just sitting.

Mihoshi stopped her bobbing and looked at the redhead.

"We're both girls," she pointed out.

"So?" Ranma replied while grabbing her hand. "Let's go."

-

Yosho, Funaho, and Misaki had retreated form Washu's lab after a few of the details were worked out. Alone in her lab, Washu turned on the mirror-device she used to communicate with Tsunami and waited for it to warm up. While the communicator was coming on line, Washu looked over the plans for a smaller, better one on one of the screens.

All too soon, the ghostly outline of a woman appeared in the devices shiny surface. Washu then turned her attention to the matter at hand.

"Were you able to put a tracking device on Fire Walker?" Tsunami asked as her image solidified in the glass.

"Better - I am able to track Fire Walker through the space/time tracker she is wearing," Washu explained. "Someone else wants to keep tabs on her and my guess it's probably the Queen."

"Her or Wind Walker," Tsunami said as she nodded in the mirror-like device. "Will your tapping be detected?"

"Not unless I put more power into the tap than I am now or someone takes a close look at Fire Walker's waveform," Washu answered.

The room descended into silence as Tsunami pondered that.

"Tsunami," Washu said very plainly and clearly. "I have a question about Fire Walker."

Tsunami blinked from her thoughts and looked at the ancient child.

"Yes?"

"Tsunami," Washu stated matter of factly. "Why doesn't Fire Walker have a zero state?"

Tsunami stared at Washu through the looking glass and sighed.

"Fire Walker was designed to be the ultimate weapon," she said. "What good is an ultimate weapon if it can be caught in an unpowered state?"

Washu thought deeply on that.

"So Fire Walker has no zero state - she's always on," Washu pointed out. "Do you realize how dangerous that is? That's like leaving a gun lying around with the safety off."

"Not quite. She has a zero-state, but the only way to reach that would be for the Queen to cut off the power tap as with any other Senshi."

"Given the power levels involved, that's not much better."

"Yes I realize it - now," Tsunami said as she sighed heavily. "Then, when we were younger, the political and defense needs of the kingdom overshadowed good judgment."

Washu thought in silence before saying almost wistfully, "To be young and stupid again."

Tsunami nodded.

"Tsunami," Washu said. "What is Fire Walker's staging compared to the other Senshi?"

Tsunami contemplated for the briefest of moments before answering.

"Fire Walker's staging is similar to the other Senshi," Tsunami explained. "She is always at first stage, which is the transformed stage of the other Senshi."

Washu remained silent and listened to Tsunami explanation.

"Within that first stage, we built in three sub-stages or levels of power," Tsunami continued. "Fire Walker didn't go into second stage like you thought, if she did, she would have transformed. She just went from stage one, sub-stage one to sub-stage two."

"Does she even have a zero state?" Washu asked.

"Yes," Tsunami replied with a nod. "As with the other Senshi, the Queen has the power tap running through her. If she were to cut off Fire Walker's power, she would fall into zero state."

"Could we somehow," Washu began.

"No," Tsunami answered the question before it was fully out. "The bindings are to the very life forces, the very souls of Fire Walker and the Queen."

"If the Queen isn't around, then what?" Washu posed the question.

"Then there would be no one to stop Fire Walker if she went rogue," came the unwelcome answer.

Silence fell between the two.

"If we had records of the bindings, we could try," Washu pointed out, looking at Tsunami. "Why did you destroy all the detailed records on the exact process for infusing?"

Tsunami blink-blinked at Washu in surprise.

"You know about that?"

Washu nodded.

"When I was doing research on the Senshi," Washu explained. "I noticed that carefully selected records were missing or destroyed. Why?"

Tsunami looked down. It was obvious that she was collecting her thoughts.

"We shouldn't have done it," she finally said after a few moments of silence. "It was monstrous of us to do what we did to those kids."

Washu sighed, she understood. "You have to work past that. At the time," Washu began.

"We bound them to powers that in turn bind them to a preconceived destiny," Tsunami continued sadly, interrupting Washu. "There's nothing like condemning innocent children to an eternity of slavery without... a chance of release."

"I wouldn't think of it as slavery," Washu began before getting cut off.

"It is!" Tsunami said loudly and firmly. "Do you think any of those - kids - will ever have a chance for a life they choose? I know that they're working on rebuilding the Moon Kingdom - they can't help it! It's something that been drilled into them in their training: Protect and preserve the Kingdom!"

Silence ruled between the two as Washu considered Tsunami words.

"That was then, this is now," Washu said. "I doubt very much that any of the subjects - I mean - kids recall much if anything from the silver Millennium."

"I hope they don't remember a thing," Tsunami said softly before changing to a harder voice. "The reason I destroyed the details on the infusion process is so that no one would follow in our footsteps. I was hoping to leave all of our mistakes behind us and forgotten."

Washu stared at the image of Tsunami in the glass. Washu sighed. "I know," she said. "We've both done a lot of things we regret. We can't undo things that we've done, but we can try to make things better now."

Tsunami nodded.

"When I find the Queen and the rest of the Senshi," Washu continued. "We'll see how much of the old programing is still intact."

"And if it is?" Tsunami questioned.

"Then we should try help the Senshi," Washu paused. "By guiding them to a more independent path."

"Wouldn't that be seen as a threat?" Tsunami pointed out. "We would be changing their - destiny."

"We can offer our help," Washu said. "Either way, it couldn't hurt and by offering it, may even help with the political solution."

-

The six youths returned to Tenchi's home rather late. Sasami had given out on the ride home and was being carried by Tenchi, piggy back style. The other girls dragged behind, tired in a good way from the night's activities.

"Man that was fun," Ranma said as she stretched a bit. "I forgot how much fun it was."

Ryoko nodded as she yawned from her spot on the rafters.

_"How'd she get up there so fast?" _Ranma asked herself in mid-stretch.

"It was fun," Ryoko agreed as she laid out on the beam. "I'm going to crash now and bathe later."

"I'll think I'll take mine now," Ranma said after sniffing under one arm. "Do you need a hand with her?" she asked Tenchi, making a wave at the sleeping Sasami on his shoulder.

"You go take your bath," he said. "I'll have Mihoshi and Ayeka to help me. Ayeka, can you get her bedding ready?"

Ayeka nodded absently and headed for the stairs trailed by Tenchi and Mihoshi.

"I'll just put her to bed and bathe and hit the sack myself," Tenchi said quietly on the stairs, not to disturb a snoring Sasami.

Ayeka nodded silently and pondered the night's activities as she ascended the stairs. The others did have a good time, but she was so caught up in keeping an eye on Ranma she wasn't able to relax. Even Sasami using her industrial strength puppy dog eyes of persuasion couldn't get her near the stage.

Ayeka sighed.

_"I should have tried,"_ she thought. _"Maybe I can convince Tenchi to take me back there sometime..."  
_  
-

The Central Controller analyzed the data that it had collected from its scouts on the going ons of the Masaki household. The redheaded women in her late teens drew the most interest of the Central Controller. It sifted through the data from the sparring session with the elder Masaki and cross referenced the information with pre-set command functions, it then concluded that the woman known as Ranma met certain classifications to raise interest.

Relying on its artificial intelligence, the Central Controller didn't need to contact its creators for instructions and concluded that Ranma would be assigned a Watcher.

Just as quickly as the Central Controller analyzed the data, it selected a Watcher that met the mission criteria. It had to blend in of course and have a long range, something the Dragonfly didn't have, and be able to carry its own transmitter. It had several at its disposal that would do the job, but after calculating the pros and cons settled on one disguised as a small bird.

-

Ranma was up early and helping Sasami in the kitchen as Tenchi popped in to give his good mornings.

"Good morning," Ranma responded with a broad smile. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, thank you," came Tenchi's reply. "You?"

Ranma nodded as she turned her attention back to want she was preparing. "I slept great. I figure that I would leave after breakfast. It's a long way to Tokyo, but since I'm heading straight there, I should make it by the end of the day."

Tenchi nodded.

-

The breakfast was more relaxed than the previous one - and more crowded. Ranma sat between Tenchi and Sasami, across from her the other girls were sitting. With all the other relatives and guests at the table, seating was crowded and noisy as conversations flew back and forth.

Of course that did mean not everything that was said was understandable.

"So I hear you are going to school with Tenchi?" Funaho asked politely of Ranma.

"Yes ma'am," Ranma answered. "I'm majoring in chemistry."

"Ah!" Misaki said. "Inspiring to be another Washu?"

"Umm. Huh?" Ranma answered.

"Are you going to apply at the Academy?" Misaki asked in a way that one could hear the capitol 'a' in academy.

"Huh?" Ranma said as she focused on the odd banter that she was engaged in with the two older women. Unseen by Ranma, Tenchi, Ayeka and Washu were waving the two women off behind her.

"Excuse me, Ranma," Katsuhito said breaking into the conversation. "Can you pass the rice?"

"Huh? Oh sorry. Sure," Ranma said as she was successfully distracted by picking up and handing the rice warmer to Tenchi, who in turn passed it down to Katsuhito.

"Thank you," Katsuhito said.

"No problem," Ranma said with a smile. She idly noted the low level distortion field that surrounded him.

_"Oh yeah,"_ Ranma thought. _"I was going to look into that - if I felt like it. It does look familiar though."  
_  
Ranma mentally shrugged her shoulders and focused her attention on Tenchi who was asking her something.

"I'm sorry Tenchi," she said. "What did you say?"

"I was just wondering if you are going need any help getting to the train station," he asked. "If you want, I'll gladly take you there."

Ranma considered his offer. It would be nice to spend a little time alone, but she took the other girls into consideration.

"Nah, I'll be all right," Ranma responded. "It's not far and I already looked at the schedule. I know which train to hop, er, I mean catch."

Tenchi nodded and turned his attention to a question that one of the older women, Misaki Ranma thought her name, was asking him.

Ranma took a moment since she wasn't speaking with anyone at the time to examine the other people at the table. The blond girl from the other night was engrossed in a conversation with Washu, it was amusing to watch her hair bobble around with each movement. Ayeka was talking to the other older women, her mother if Ranma recalled correctly and Sasami was also part of that conversation.

Ranma looked at Tenchi and sighed softly before she realized it.

"Miss Yonai," a voice asked.

Ranma turned to Katsuhito, Tenchi's grandfather.

"Yes sir?" she replied.

"You are a very skilled martial artist," he complemented her. "I would be honored if you would spar with me again if you ever find yourself here."

Ranma smiled.

"Be happy to," she replied. "I don't know when I can make it back this way though."

She spared Ryoko a look.

"I'd like a rematch, if we ever meet up again," Ranma said. "It was fun."

Ryoko leaned slightly forward and nodded with a smile.

-

"Tenchi?" Ranma asked carefully. "Is there anything going on around here?"

"Going on?" Tenchi asked nervously. "What do you mean?"

"Tenchi, I'm not stupid," Ranma said while folding her arms. "Something is going on."

Tenchi sighed heavily.

"I'm sorry Ranma," he said. "But I can't tell you."

"Why?"

"I can't. It's... it's...," Tenchi flailed around for words, "It's like when you made that promise to that guy you thought of as a friend. I can't. Too many people are involved."

Ranma looked at Tenchi, uncertainty in her eyes.

"Trust me," Tenchi whispered.

Ranma blink-blinked, then nodded.

"Okay," she said with an added smile. "I trust you."

She stepped closer to him, close enough that Tenchi swore he felt her body heat. Tenchi tensed then relaxed and found himself not feeling nervous about her nearness.

"But if it is something you can't handle alone," Ranma added, poking him in the chest with her finger while looking up at him with a cocked eyebrow. "I expect you to tell me so I can help you. Okay?"

Tenchi looked at Ranma in the eyes, a smile crept over his face.

"I promise."

The two youths stood in an awkward silence for a moment before Ranma piped up, "Well, I guess I'll be going now. I'll see you in a few weeks."

Tenchi's smiled broadened and Ranma fought the urge to glomp him.

-

With a shrug of her shoulders, Ranma reseated her backpack into a more comfortable position. She looked down the tree lined path she was on that would take her to Okayama. From there she'd hop a train back to Tokyo and home.

_"It was a good trip, I'm glad to have done it,"_ she thought, kicking a stray pebble in front of her. _"I_ _got to learn new techniques, spar with Tenchi and his grandfather and met the other people in his life."_

She smiled at the recent memory.

_"His life is about as screwed up as mine was, poor sap,_" Ranma thought as she lost the pebble to an errant kick. _"I won't complicate his life, I can tell he has enough problems."  
_  
She continued down the path, her footfalls kicking up a small amount of dust in her wake.

_"I do like him though." _She considered her mixed feelings about the pigtailed man.

Ranma considered those mixed feelings deeper before mentally shrugging her shoulders.

_"I'm still young," _she thought as she made her way to the paved road. "_I'll figure it out."  
_  
Seeing that there were no motorists on the road, Ranma made a beeline for the bordering trees and quickly flowed through the woods as she dashed from limb to limb.

Unbeknownst to her, she was being followed by two different parties.

-  
-

Notes:

First and foremost I would like to thank everybody that emailed me with their advice on solving the problems I've had with the posting of the last chapter. I kept my original notices that I posted here and the end for anyone in the future that is interested in what I went through.

I hope everyone has been enjoying this and I am hoping to "pick up the pace" with the next chapter. I'm going to attempt to speed the pace without skimping. Hope I can pull it off.

I would like to thank everyone who managed to read through the mess that was the last chapter before it was fixed and left a review.

The last three lines on the bottom are just test lines so I can quickly see if my punctuation marks are showing up. Please ignore them. But for those who are posting stories here, they may want to do something similar.

Thanks for reading.

**Original notice: 2-08-05**

Important note:

I now have a simple web page up (my wife was real quick in putting it up for me). It has all the chapters of Aftermath posted. My web page can be found on the link on my profile page.

I will continue to post here on FFNet and I will do my best to insure that the chapters are displayed as best they can. But I will not be spending hours trying to doing that anymore.

I don't know what the problem is, but I am about 90 percent sure that it is not my files. I have been noticing that the problems I've been having with FFNet have been growing worse over the last three to four months. All it took to fix those problems in the past was an adjustment here or there - no big thing. Now it seems like no matter what I try, it ends in failure and frustration.

As stated, I will continue to post here and try to make my pages display correctly, but I do not know how successful I'll be.

This notice will be replaced by a real live chapter when it's finished.

Thank you all,

Trimatter

**Update: 2-11-05**

Howdy,

I'd like to thank everyone who wrote to me with suggestions and help with the problems I had with FFNet.

I like to thank Ranchan17 for hosting the chapter on her web site in a legible format while I wrestled with it.

I did extensive testing and I am now 95 percent sure the problem is not in my file. After haggling around I narrowed the problem down to two possibilities:

**An interpretation error.** FFNet converts the file and the errors are created. This, I feel is the most likely culprit.

**File corruption during uploading.** Though this is a possibility, but I feel it is unlikely. The shear number of upload attempts from different computers and places that I had tried. I cannot rule it out completely, therefore, it is still a possibility.

The number of tests/experiments I did to check this out would be too numerous to list here, lets just say it included many applications (to create the rich text file) and operating systems. Also in my effort to narrow this down I 'spot checked' other peoples postings around the the time I posted my chapter. This leads me to issue the below warning:

**ALERT TO ALL OTHER WRITERS: When I "spot checked" other peoples postings that were made around the time of my problem, I have noticed the same problems occurring in some of their files. I would say roughly between ten and twenty percent of what I checked had problems with question marks, comma's, and other punctuation marks disappearing. The pattern of dropped punctuation marks is too regular to dismiss for they are in predicable areas of the text.**

**I suggest everyone double-check their files after they have posted them.  
**  
As stated above, this notice will be replaced by a real live chapter when it's finished.

Thank you all,

Trimatter

-

"Is this a test?"

"Yes," he said. "This is a test!"

_Italics_, **bold**


	28. University Part 9

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

- + - + - + -  
- + - + - + -

University Part 9

- + - + - + -

The room was large with a dome ceiling. It was dark and the only source of light came from a fireplace that caused the shadows to move and creep as the fire flickered. The decor was a mishmash of various styles and furnishings from different eras and places. Everything from ancient wing back chairs to ultramodern glass top tables supported by aluminum shafts were present. The high, curved walls were pockmarked with portraits ranging from long dead people to ghostly star-scapes.

The floor was carpeted with small rugs from plain to exotic designs, again from different times and places. The hard wooden floor peaked out here and there between the coverings, creating its own pattern. The walls below the paintings were lined with row after row of books, computer equipment and other odd devices. Each object had the aura of little or no use, as if they were placed there merely for decoration and nothing more.

Before the fireplace and its raging fire was a long and low comfortable couch. Across from it was a pane of glass that served as a desktop. It floated in midair without any visible means of support. Behind the desk floated two pillows, perpendicular to one another, creating a chair.

A figure entered the darkened room wearing a white, button up shirt and dark trousers. The man had thick facial hair. His eyebrows were bushy, his mustache was like a solid mass under his nose and his goatee was like a dagger pointing down. His complexion was dark, as if he spent a great deal of time in the sun. Yet physically it looked as if his skin were vacuum-formed over his skeleton.

The man was tall and slender, leaning toward being unhealthfully underweight. Along with his thin build he had an air of frailty about him, as if his thin arms would break if he exerted himself too much. In spite of his unimposing body, his eyes burned with the light of great intelligence and perhaps fear. He sighed as he sunk into the floating chair behind the desk, rubbing his goatee in contemplation.

_"I have to report this,"_ he pondered._ "She hates being disturbed, but this could throw a monkey wrench into everything."_

Steepling his fingers before his face as he rested his elbows on the desktop, he pondered deeper.

_"The Senshi, after all this time..."  
_  
With that thought he removed a medallion from under his shirt and held the center part of it with the thumb and forefinger of one hand as he twisted the outer ring with the outer hand. There was no buzz of power, no blinking lights or any other indication that the device was on. Sitting, the man waited patiently for his... associate to respond to his call.

"Yes, Zarkov. What is it?" a voice from nowhere asked.

"I have a report from the unit that is watching over the Masaki household on Earth, Mistress," Zarkov said.

"Oh? Anything interesting?" the old woman asked.

"I think you should watch and judge it for yourself," Zarkov answered. "There may be a complication to the plan."

"I'll be right there."

And she was. She merely stepped out of thin air and into the room. She stood in front of the desk with a withered hand on a long staff.

"Let's see the report."

- + - + - + -

The Mistress watched the recording of the nighttime meeting between Washu and Tsunami, unmoving and in silence. As the scene played, a glint slowly came to her eyes and then a smile. A very unpleasant smile.

"This is going to be better than I thought," she proclaimed. "Sailor Sun! How wonderful! How Perfect!"

Zarkov watched the shrunken old lady almost dance with glee. It was almost comical when she did do a little jig. He didn't laugh though - he felt like he shouldn't dare to.

"M-mistress," he began, getting her attention. "Who is Sailor Sun?"

The Mistress stopped her jig and faced the man seated behind the desk.

"Sailor Sun is the Senshi name for Project Fire Walker," she said with a smile.

Zarkov thought deeply for a moment before shaking his head. "I don't recall Sailor Sun or a Project Fire Walker."

"Because she was a secret," the Mistress replied. "A big secret. As badly as you botched the Protectors project, do you think you'd be trusted with something as powerful as this?"

Zarkov flinched, but didn't argue the point.

"And now that she is here," the Mistress continued. "Things will get more interesting."

Zarkov blink-blinked.

"I don't see how this could work in our favor," he said worriedly. "If this Sailor Sun is as powerful as they suggest, then we will have to alter our plan."

The Mistress laughed a little laugh.

"Fear not my friend," the older woman cackled. "Have I ever been wrong yet? I did tell you that the Senshi would be back long before we started our manipulations for taking power."

Zarkov considered her words, then nodded in concession. "You were right about the Senshi coming back," Zarkov continued from his seat. "But you seemed surprised by Sailor Sun, though."

"I know many things," the hunched figure said as it moved into the light. "But I have to admit that I was surprised at this development. This does make it interesting."

Then she added, speaking more to herself than Zarkov, "In all the possibilities, who'd have thought that another would have been made."

"Another?" Zarkov questioned.

The old, huddled form of the Mistress gazed at the seated Zarkov. "Never-mind," she said with a hint of threat. "It is not your concern."

Silence fell between the two that lasted a few brief moments.

"What about Wind Walker?" the man suddenly asked worriedly. "How will you deal with her?"

"Don't worry about her, Zarkov," the Mistress said quietly. "I already have an amusement in mind to keep her occupied."

"How?"

She looked at him with an especially cold smile, one that made him shiver to his very core.

"That," she said before vanishing. "Is a secret."

Once he was alone, Zarkov sagged in relief into his chair as the Mistress went to wherever she came from. Rubbing his temples with the forefingers of each hand, he rued the day that he ever met her.

- + - + - + -

_"Sailor Sun,"_ she thought with amusement as she appeared in her private universe, a universe where she was the soul inhabitant. _"Now this makes things really interesting."  
_  
Tilting her head, she replayed the chat Washu and Tsunami had in her mind. She smiled evilly as a plan slowly developed.

"What to do, what to do," she said coldly, her voice echoing in the near barren room."I didn't expect there to be a Sailor Sun here."

The old women paused in her hobbling and considered.

"I'll set her free!" she announced to no one. "I **will** set her free. Like I was! Yes! That's what I'll do."

_"She would make a good friend. Hmmm,"_ she pondered. _"I have been lonely for a long... time - another person to share eternity with would be welcome."_

She stood at thought deeper on her plans and her desires.  
_  
"I'll have to plot carefully," _she thought._ "I shouldn't have too many problems with her if her upbringing was anything like mine. If it was like I suspect, then that would make us practically sisters."  
_  
She pondered in silence for a few seconds, then cackled and resumed her hobble across the room, then morphed into a tall, younger woman. Her hobble changed into a stride and she walked with purpose toward a wall with tall cabinets and a large mirror.

"I'll free her from the shackles of her slavers," she thought aloud. "I will make her realize what she really is - what she truly can be. She would make a great friend, if not..."

The woman's voice trailed off as she contemplated some more.

"... maybe a slave under my direction. And if I fail in that, well... she'll be fun to play with - before she dies."

She straightened her short skirt out and brushed some imaginary dust off herself.

"She had to have just been reborn not long ago, so she'll be easy for me to deal with," she said to her reflection. "She can't fight a goddess - yet - and hope to win. I'll have to pay the Earth a visit before I solidify my plans further - and to stir things up."  
_  
_The chamber was filled with a slightly insane laugh before it died down. She rubbed her hands together in anticipation.  
_  
"I going to be entertained," _she thought to herself. _"So very entertained..."  
_  
She stood smiling before a mirror and straightened the bow in her hair out.

- + - + - + -

It had been two months since Ranma's visit to Tenchi's home and once back in school, the two fell into a comfortable routine. Yet there were subtle changes in the routine. Ranma and Tenchi found themselves hanging out more and more together and socializing with other people less. Their respective roommates still dragged them to 'The Cute Rabbit' every Friday night, but the time they spent alone together was increasing.

Not that Ranma minded.

The previous week the school had its open house, and Akiko and Michiko with her boyfriend Jiro showed up. Ranma took the opportunity to introduce Tenchi to her family. Ranma smiled at Tenchi's embarrassment as Akiko declared him a "fine young man".

_"Tenchi turned as red as my hair," _Ranma chuckled to herself as she weaved her way through the sea of students that appeared between classes. _"I think I'll head to the Library and catch up on some reading."  
_  
There was a slight difference in Ranma's class schedule this semester that gave her forty five minutes between two of her morning classes. She had used that break to find a quiet corner somewhere in the lounge on the main floor of the Library and catch up on her reading assignments or do research.

It was during one of her reading sessions in the lounge of the Library, that Ranma sat in one of the long, low couches that lined one wall of the lounge. In front of each couch was a equally low table that she dumped her pack onto. Unzipping the pack, she fished around and extracted a book, flipped through the pages, and stopped at the chapter Biological Chemistry. Leaning back into the couch, she began reading.

It was quiet during this time of day and she usually managed to get a lot of reading done. Tenchi knew her schedule and would usually show up a little later and they would pass the time studying or conversing with the other students in the lobby.

Occasionally he would be late and Ranma, or someone else, would strike up a conversation. Most the time Ranma had pleasant enough conversations with the other students that came wandering in and out of the lounge. Not that Ranma minded talking to someone, but every now and then there would be someone, usually a guy, that would get on her nerves.

This was one of those times.

"Excuse me," Ranma said tartly, interrupting the young man who decided to chat with her. Ranma motioned between her breasts and her head with her hands. "My face is up here."

"Ahhh," the young man stammered, realizing what part of Ranma's anatomy that he was staring at.

"I think you should find another place to sit," Ranma directed.

"But... I just...," his voice trailed off as he saw the look on Ranma's face. A look that brooked no argument.

_"Jerk,"_ Ranma thought bitterly as she raised her book to her face as the young man vacated his space.

A few quiet moments passed.

"Mind if I sit here?" a voice asked.

Annoyed that she was interrupted again, Ranma sighed explosively. She didn't really mind being social, but after dealing with the last jerk Ranma wasn't up to having her reading disturbed again. Looking up, her annoyance passed quickly as she saw who it was.

"Tenchi," she said merrily.

"Hi. Am I late?"

"A little - didn't think you'd make it. Have a seat," Ranma answered while patting the place next to her.

"I got caught up after class in a debate over 'what good is Bushido in today's world'," Tenchi explained as he sat next to the redhead. Comfortably close. "I thought I wouldn't get a chance to see you before classes kicked in again."

Ranma smiled at him, enjoying their closeness.

"We still on for tonight?" Ranma asked.

"Sure," Tenchi replied as he looked at Ranma in the eyes - something that Ranma loved and appreciated.

- + - + - + -

The alley was shrouded in shadows even in broad daylight, but in the morning twilight it was especially dark and uninviting. There was nothing special about the place in any way shape or form: A very typical alley with smelly dumpsters, cracked pavement and algae that was growing in spots that were constantly damp from runoff of lord knows what. The ugly, white washed walls and exposed pipes of the surrounding buildings added an air of claustrophobia to the narrow lane, giving it a more sinister feel than it deserved.

A line, suspended in mid-air, appeared suddenly as an old woman stepped into the ally from nowhere. She looked around and took in her surroundings. It was not exactly a grand debut to the world, but something she had already seen a few times before.

_"According to the Watcher, Sailor Sun is going to school near here," _the cloaked figure thought._ "I could just feel her out, but I don't want to draw any undue attention. I'll just stake out the area where the Watcher reported her activities and wait for her to turn up."_

On the completion of that thought, the old woman morphed into a much taller, young man wearing a dark sports jacket, white shirt and dark pants.

- + - + - + -

Ranma sat cross-legged and attempted to followed the mental exercises that were detailed in the scrolls she picked up from Master Asahi. She was finding it difficult to find her center as the memory of two years ago invaded her forethoughts when she went 'super'. It was impossible for Ranma to wrap her mind around the shear gargantuan amount of power she was capable of tapping into.

It frightened her.  
_  
"I have power, a ridiculous amount of power,"_ she thought as she eased herself into her center to begin her meditations. _"I've been training how to use it, but I've neglected on really actually controlling - regulating it."_

She thought back on some of the training that Happosai had put her through and in the process strayed further from her center.

_"Happosai really knows how to control ki,"_ she thought, _"and my powers acted kinda like ki up to a certain point."  
_  
Ranma stopped her musings and tried to return to a semi-meditative state. Unfortunately her thoughts and feelings were like a certain lost boy from her past, instead of relaxing into her center, Ranma grew frustrated.

_"After that point, it acts - differently,"_ Ranma sighed at her inability to meditate. She opened her eyes and thumbed through the copies of the scrolls she got from Master Asahi. _"These are all about ki. I don't know how helpful these scrolls are going to be."  
_  
She sighed again heavily and gave up on the exercise. Slightly depressed with her momentary failure, Ranma reached for one of the scrolls.

- + - + - + -

Pluto was in the midst of another attempt to make sense of the readings that she was getting from the Gates of Time. She continued to untangle the mess that the main timeline had developed into when it had split into three distinct timelines. She was used to seeing more possibilities through the Gates, but what made this one different was that each timeline weighed in equally.

_"This is so frustrating," _she thought as she realigned the Gates of time using a different set of points.

The points, or reference points, were multidimensional beacons that the Gates of Time used to focus and track any timeline that Sailor Pluto desired. The points were essential to navigation in the endless vastness of the space/time continuum. The points were created by the Gates of Time itself over the millennia and billions had been manufactured and spread throughout space/time. By switching between several sets of points, Pluto's aim was to break the equally sized timelines into smaller ones in the hope of weeding out the most dominant timeline.

Pluto blinked as she made a slight adjustment with her staff. The timelines wavered, then split. Instead of three lines that Pluto was working with, there were suddenly a dozen.

_"Yes!"_ she thought excitedly. _"Success at last!"_

Further celebrating was halted as the dozen timelines split again, and again...

She suddenly had hundreds, then thousands, and then millions.

"What in the hell!" she said aloud as she tried to regain control of the situation, but the more she tried to bring the timelines under her control. She froze and reexamined what she was looking at.

It was a endless mass of lines that radiated from a center point. The lines were so densely packed that it looked solid to the untrained eye. Fortunately Pluto recognized what she was looking at, but unfortunately knew it was bad news.

_"Oh no,"_ she thought. _"I lost the reference points - I can't find our timeline."_

What was showing through the Gate of Time was not the dominant timeline that Pluto was used to seeing, even with the divergences that she had picked up on in the last few weeks. Instead the Gates were showing all the timelines for every possible outcome from a center-point that represented the big bang - the beginning of time - to the very end of the universe itself. Without the proper space/time reference points, it would be impossible to find the correct timeline.

Starting at the center-point that was the big bang, the beginning of time for this universe, Pluto attempted to find the proper timeline.

_"This is bad," _she thought, _"It's like someone swept the reference points away."_

She froze and reexamined what she was looking at.

_"Someone **did** swept the reference points away..."  
_  
- + - + - + -

Ranma carelessly tossed her pack onto her bed. There it bounced once on her unmade sheets and blanket and rolled off onto the floor, spilling some papers through the half closed zipper. She plopped herself tiredly onto her chair before her desk.

Ranma sighed.

It wasn't that school was boring or anything. She was still happy and proud to be in Tokyo University, it was just that it just didn't seem to live up to the reputation that had been impressed upon her. It wasn't a party school by a long shot, but it wasn't the studious, sterile environment she envisioned either.

_"Well at least Megumi made it back,"_ Ranma thought as she reached into an open box of Pocky. "_After the problems she told me she had with her old high school boyfriend..."  
_  
Ranma's thoughts drifted off as she munched away at the chocolate covered treat, only to be snapped back to reality by the time on her clock.  
_  
"Damn!"_ she thought. _"I better get moving. I have to be at work in thirty minutes."_

- + - + - + -

The young man leaned against the smooth metal of the telephone pole as he appeared to idly read the newspaper. Though the day was a nice fall one, the rains having passed earlier, he ignored the trees that were beginning to turn in favor of scrutinizing the college students as they herded themselves to and from their classes.

_"She's around here, I know it,_" the disguised woman thought to herself. _"I can sense the concentration of the universe's ki that she has nearby."  
_  
The man-looking woman leaned harder against the telephone pole.

Double checking to make sure her fields were suppressed she thought. _"The last thing I want her to know is my existence before she is ready."  
_  
The crowds of students began to thin. Amid the various colored heads, a shock of red stood out. The Mistress' eyes narrowed.

_"There she is. Yes, no doubt,_" she thought as she felt the concentration of power.

The disguised woman covertly studied the redhead as she made her way from the campus to the Folk Crafts Museum nearby.

_"She's much more powerful than I thought,"_ she mused with a smile. _"All the better. I don't even have to extend my senses to trace the link."_

Still appearing to be a man, the woman folded the newspaper under one arm and followed the redhead at a discreet distance. As she followed her, she examined the power that rolled off the young redheaded woman. Invisible to all, Ranma's power appeared like a blazing sun to the disguised woman's senses. Highlighted by Ranma's hidden power was a filament that lead off to the east.

The Mistress smiled.

The redhead entered a traditionally roofed building. The false man stopped at the entryway of the grounds and noted the sign.

_"Folk Crafts Museum," _Ranma's shadow mused to herself before waiting a few minutes and following her inside...

And there she was, the object of her quest. She was dressed in a neat jacket seated behind a desk with two stacks of brochures resting on top. The redhead looked up and spotted her the moment she stepped into the building.

"Welcome," the redhead said with a smile and a bow, "to the Folk Crafts Museum."

"Thank you," the sharply dressed man replied as he returned the bow. "Could you please help me? I seemed to have lost my way."

"Yes sir," the redhead said. "Where are you trying to go?"

Recalling some names on a map that he had seen earlier, the man lied convincingly. "I'm looking for Shibuya."

The redhead blinked. "Shibuya? That's a little east from here. Did you get off at the wrong station?"

"Yes, I'm afraid I did," the man answered smoothly as he noted the name-tag on the girl. "East of here, you say?"

"Yes sir," Ranma answered. "It's not far, just follow the road outside east and then the signs."

"Thank you," the Mistress said with a bow.

The redhead bowed in return. "You're quite welcome, sir."

The Mistress smiled at the happy coincidence as she exited. _"Ranma... an interesting name. East she said. The same direction as the link. Now on to the next step."_

With that thought, the woman turned on her heel and followed the invisible link.

- + - + - + -

Ranma came back to her dorm room after an afternoon of work. It was a slow afternoon, so she wasn't distracted from her circular thoughts. Things had been quiet lately, more so than ever. Ranma had finally calmed down and started relaxing about her course work that she didn't feel guilty that Megumi was still dragging her out on Fridays. Ranma objected less to that since she in turn dragged Tenchi along.

In spite of the routine, she was in turmoil over a certain pigtailed young man. A turmoil that has been plaguing her more and more often.

_"I haven't even known him a year,"_ Ranma thought to herself as she considered the man that won her... affection. _"Feelings like this are not supposed to happen this fast. I'm not supposed to feel this way."_

It had turned into what Ranma called 'the self debate from hell'.

_"Who said you're not suppose to feel this way?" _A voice asked in the back of her head._ "Since when did love have a time limit?"_

"I only met him, not even a year ago," Ranma mentally explained to herself._ "What makes me think he should feel anything for me?"_

"You see that look in his eyes," the other voice pointed out. _"You know he feels something."_

"How do I know for sure?" Ranma thought worriedly. _"How do I know if I'm seeing something that's not there?"_

"Then tell him how you feel!" The voice demanded.__

"I can't do that!" Ranma answered._ "He'll laugh at me at best - or at worst he'll avoid me like the plague."_

"So you'd rather torture yourself with self doubt rather than find out how he really feels."

"No! Yes! I don't know!"

"And you never will know until you try..."

"Huh?"

Ranma forcefully quieted her mind down before it entered another bout of circular thoughts that would drive her crazy. With a slight headache and a sigh of exasperation with her inability to come to terms over Tenchi, Ranma sunk into her mattress, curled under the covers, and drifted off to sleep.

- + - + - + -

Ami was in her dorm room, finishing up the required reading for the next day. School was incredibly easy for her thus far and to tell the truth, she was getting a little bored.

With her roommate off doing research at one of the libraries, Ami once again decided to look into the Tech-master's files. She had taken a break from her reading during the summer and never really bothered to get back to looking into it. Now back in school, Ami found herself in a studying mood and decided to link up the Mercury Computer with the master one on the Moon.

Opening and waking the Mercury computer that was configured to look more like a more normal laptop, Ami made the command keystrokes that would commence the interlink. In a very few moments the Mercury computer connected itself to the Moon's Central Computer and began cross downloading the different security screens and updating files that were stored locally on the Mercury Computer. It was everything Ami was used to seeing when she logged on to the Moon Computer, except for one detail.

_"Usage log?" _Ami wondered, confused at this new addition to sign on screen. _"What is that and why would it be flashing?"_

Sidetracked from her original purpose of rummaging through ancient files, Ami delved into this new mystery. Typing away on her laptop, Ami explored the workings of the network between the Moon Computer and her Mercury Computer.

_"Seems like the Moon Computer keeps an active log of who has logged in," _Ami finally concluded._ "But I have logged in before, so why is it alerting me now?"_

She dug around some more.

"Ah-ha!" she said aloud before thinking, _"I set up a security routine when I first got the computer. I was just playing around with it then - didn't think anything of it. I had forgotten all about it. It's just letting me know that someone else has logged on to the Moon Computer."_

Ami mind froze at that thought before her eyes widened as realization dawned on her.

_"That means someone other than me has access to the Moon Computer."  
_  
- + - + - + -

Ranma was naked. She felt the cool air of the hallway brush against her bare skin, raising gooses bumps here and there. The hall way was long and wide with illumination coming from small slits on the rounded ceiling. Flanking her were two faceless people, much taller than her, dressed in all white smocks of some kind. She sensed another person directly behind her, but ignored that in favor of the person she was following.

It was Auntie.

And she too was walking between figures in white smocks.

And she was equally naked.

The procession walked down the hall until it dead-ended. Someone in front motioned with his(?) hand and the wall folded in on itself. Everyone silently entered another room that was wider than the hallway, but still surprised Ranma by how small it was.

The antechamber had a slightly rounded ceiling like the hallway, but the lighting was provided by glowing bars instead of slits. In the small room were several more people dressed in white whose faces Ranma couldn't quite make out. There was one that was dressed in a blue smock and seemed to be in charge. Though self conscious of her nudity, she put on a brave face as to not embarrass Auntie.

"Ready?" a disembodied voice asked. Ranma somehow knew it was coming from the blue smocked woman.

Auntie nodded and the white dressed people started attaching things to Auntie and Ranma.

"What's this?" Ranma found herself saying.

"It's all right," the voice of her Auntie said. "It's to make sure that you will be all right when you are granted your powers."

Ranma nodded.

"While you two are prepping, I'll double check the infusion tubes," the woman in blue said and disappeared.

"Is everything ready?" Auntie Serenity asked.

"Yes, my Queen," a familiar disembodied female voice from behind Ranma answered. "The field capturers are at maximum and the crystal is ready for infusion and implantation."

"What's the status of the focuser?"

"On line and building up the charge. Considering the amount of power that is expected, it is set very wide to encompass the entire galactic core."

Auntie Serenity nodded to one of faceless men in white as he finished attaching the wire-like things.

"My Queen," the disembodied voice from behind Ranma asked - it was annoyingly recognizable and Ranma was frustrated that she couldn't place it. "Tech-master Jurai asked me to remind you of the risks involved."

Auntie nodded to the voice that was still behind Ranma.

"I'm aware, thank you Tech-master Hakubi," Auntie said. "I'm sure we'll be just fine. We have done this several times before.

"But not with the amount of power we're infusing," the familiar voice said. Ranma wanted to turn around and see who this person was, but was frustrated that she couldn't.

"I'm sure all will be well," Auntie Serenity said while she motioned for Ranma to follow her. "Come along dear."

The door of the antechamber flowed into the wall and revealed a large, dome topped room with several more white dressed people hovering around instruments of some sort. Moving further inside, Ranma realized how small the room felt because of the huge pieces of equipment that filled it. To Ranma's eyes, one wall was lined with large, glass cylinders topped with several thick copper-colored tubes that ran up through the ceiling. Ranma remembered seeing the ruins of this room on the Moon. In this dream though, it was throbbing with life and power.

Finding herself still following behind Auntie, they moved among the machinery where still more people were dressed in white. The only person dressed differently was the women in blue from the antechamber. She was busy looking at something in her hand. Upon looking up, motioned for the two naked females in the direction of two unsealed tubes.

As each woman was being helped into their Infusion tube, Ranma spotted someone that made her heart stop. Peering in through the doorway of the antechamber, was a woman in red with red spiky hair and a face that was hauntingly familiar. A part of Ranma's mind latched onto the woman's face, turning it over in her memories. Then the door between the Infusion Room and the antechamber closed.

A humming vibration filled the glass-like tube that Ranma was encased in. Ranma's panic was calmed by the serene smile from Auntie, who was in a chamber much like Ranma's. Ranma watched as the woman in blue placed a crystal in a three pronged receptacle in front on Ranma's tube. The woman in blue then typed something into a floating, transparent keyboard.

Then a bright light filled the tube, engulfing Ranma and blinding her. The feeling of something penetrating into her very soul shuddered throughout her being. Ranma felt weightless as the light lifted her up, suspending her in midair in the tube. The feeling of power flowing through her became overwhelming and her mouth opened in a silent scream. The sensation of the infusion was interpreted by Ranma's brain as an odd mixture of pleasure and pain as the power drove Ranma to her limits and beyond, she was about to cry out in pain/pleasure when everything went black.

Ranma woke up from her sleep, disoriented and groggy from the overpowering realism of the dream. She mentally fumbled about trying to draw herself into a more aware state, all the while keeping the hauntingly familiar face of the woman in red in her mind. Ranma struggled to remember as she reached full consciousness, one name came though her still sleep fogged mind:

"Washu."

- + - + - + -

Ranma was wandering the campus, in the early predawn light, turning last night's dream over in her head. Being a Saturday, she took the opportunity of having no classes and not having to be at work until nine forty-five to sort through the confusing images and feelings of the dream.

_"No," _she concluded. _"It wasn't a dream, it was a memory."_

She continued her walk in the cool morning air, goose pimples rising on her bare legs that peeked from her shorts as she walked.

_"I guess that little girl who lives with Tenchi shook a memory loose,_" Ranma thought, ignoring the cold. _"I wonder what else is knocking around in the back of my mind_."

She considered that line of thought.

_"First my memories were blocked, then those came down. Even the memory block within the memory block eventually came down,_" Ranma pondered. _"I know if I try to rush it, I can hurt myself. Maybe in a way I don't want to know, seems like when I try too much I remember nothing but bad stuff."  
_  
Rounding the corner of the building she lived in, she headed toward an open space in the back where she was occasionally instructed by Happosai.

_"I'll run through some katas to help me think," _she thought as she headed to the back of the dorms. _"I gotta sort this out."_

Her thoughts were derailed as another emotionally troubling situation jogged toward her.

"Ranma?" the jogger asked. "You're up early."

Ranma blink-blinked at the newcomer and then smiled.

"Morning Tenchi," she greeted him with a thin smile. "Your roommate woke you early again, I see."

Tenchi smiled in return. "Yes," he answered. "His snoring could wake the dead."

The two youths fell into a silence that grew more uncomfortable as it progressed.

"So," Tenchi ventured. "What are you up early for?"

"Nightmare," Ranma answered without thought. "Couldn't get back to sleep."

She caught Tenchi's eyes and a fluttery feeling invaded her stomach. She quickly suppressed it.

"Hungry?" Tenchi asked.

Ranma, forgetting her morning workout, smiled and nodded.

"Let's get something to eat," Tenchi offered as he led Ranma off to the cafe they had ate at before.

In spite of her control over her body, Ranma's heart rate went up involuntary.

_"Oh man," _she thought as they walked. She studied Tenchi's face, lost in the welling emotions she felt. _"Do I really love him or do I just think I love him?"_

"Say Ranma," Tenchi said suddenly while they continued on to the cafe. "I- I never got to..., um - you know - take you on a real date or anything."

Ranma's fluttery feeling increased tenfold.

"Ah... yeah?" She squeaked before composing herself and pointing out mirthfully. "Well you know, going to the 'Cute Rabbit' every Friday could be considered a date."

Tenchi was silent for a moment before saying, "I -I m-mean just us. No one else."

It was Ranma's turn for quiet reflection. "You want to ask me out?" she clarified.

Tenchi was silent for a moment, his face blushed slightly before he stammered, "Y-yes."

The fluttery feeling in the pit of Ranma's stomach exploded. Her nerves rose to such a state that it spread throughout her body as a great warmth. Her nervousness made itself known by the uncomfortable feeling of needing to void her bladder.

_"Tell him how you feel!" _part of Ranma's mind screamed. _"It's the prefect time! No one is around - do it!"  
_  
"Tenchi - I love -," Ranma's voice and will faltered, "- to."

_"Coward!" _that part of her mind screamed in frustration.

Tenchi turned his face toward the shorter girl walking by his side and smiled.

"G-great," He said nervously. "Let's plan for next Saturday night - if that's all right."

"T-that's fine," Ranma stammered back. Her nerves finally getting the best of her, Ranma broke into a light giggle.

Tenchi open the door to the small cafe for her and both entered the eatery.

_"Oh Tenchi,"_ Ranma thought as she sat in their traditional spot by the window. _"How can I tell you how I feel? If you reject me, my heart... my heart would shatter like glass."_

- + - + - + -

Sailor Pluto pondered the problem before her.  
_  
"There's got to be some way to bring the situation under control," _she thought while keeping the feelings of panic under control. _"If I could find one reference point that is unique to our timeline, then I can start building new reference points from there."_

Making further adjustments with her staff, Pluto continued to study the overflowing lines of emptiness that were the confused mess of endless time streams. Like several million long strings that all have been wadded up into knots, it was impossible to pick out the one string she needed. Pluto looked longingly for the one, defined point that she knew was unique to her timeline: The homing point.

_"When I get back I'll have to report this to..."_ Pluto froze in thought as she realized that the most important point was missing. _"Oh no! Without the homing point, I can't find my way back. I'm stuck here until I can find my timeline."_

She looked at the mess that the Gates of Time was displaying with a new, deeper sense of despair.

- + - + - + -

The week ran its normal routine of classes, work and Tenchi. The afternoon however, had been unusually troublesome for Ranma. She sighed heavily as she entered her dorm room from a grueling afternoon in the lab with one thought on her mind: Thank goodness it's Friday.

The lab work that afternoon would have gone much better if Ranma's thoughts weren't constantly distracted by a certain somebody. Because of those thoughts, she had to rerun the experiment. For that, she rewarded herself with a severe scolding on the way back to her dorm for being so... imaginative.

It had been two weeks since Ranma and Tenchi's first "real date" and as far as Ranma was concerned, it went wonderfully. It was a typical "first date": dinner, movie, dancing and conversation. Lots and lots of conversation. Because Ranma and Tenchi were well acquainted with each other, there was none of the typical first date awkwardness. Underneath it all, Ranma got the feeling that Tenchi was holding something back. But seeing that she was also not telling everything about herself, Ranma couldn't complain.

Megumi was in, hunched at her desk, cyphering numbers from a math assignment. Ranma slipped out of her shoes, placed her backpack on the floor and sat down at her desk across from Megumi. Ranma then leaned over and extracted two books and a notebook from her bag and spread them across her desk. Ranma idly opened one of the books to the chapter she needed and stared at the words for a few seconds.

Ranma sighed and propped her head up between her hands with her elbows resting on the desktop.

_"Why isn't love cut and dry?"_ Ranma bemoaned herself. _"It's not like those movies I used to watch with Michiko where there is a... big realization or something."_

Dropping one hand she fiddled with the open book before her, flipping pages back and forth without thought.

_"Do I love Tenchi?_ She wondered. _"Or do I just think I love him?"_

Ranma stopped her fiddling and considered, _"Do I even know what love is?"_

She sighed again at the memory of her and him being together.

_"How does he feel about me?" _she thought wistfully. _"He did ask me out..."  
_  
Ranma resumed playing with the pages of the book. _"I can't just go up to him and say: Hey Tenchi, I think I love you, how do you feel about me? I'd die if he..."_

Ranma thoughts drifted off, not wanting to think the worst.

_"If I tell him and he doesn't love me, will he even want to be with me? Will I chase him off? The world would be a dark and lonely place without him."_

She rubbed her forehead, trying to steady her emotions.

_"This is so hard."_

"Tough assignment?" Megumi asked out of the blue.

"Huh?" Ranma said, breaking from her thoughts.

"I asked if you had a tough assignment," Megumi repeated. "You look like you're having a hard time of it."

"Yeah," Ranma said quietly. "I'm just trying to figure something out. That's all."

A few quite moments passed between the two girls. Ranma thought a bit more about her situation and turned to her roommate, who was by then back working on her math.

"Megumi?" Ranma said tentatively.

"Hmmmm?" Megumi replied absently as she fiddled with some numbers.

"Can I ask you something?" Ranma asked softly.

Megumi stopped what she was doing and looked up at Ranma. "What's the matter?" she asked seeing the slightly distraught look on Ranma's face.  
_  
_Ranma remained quiet for a moment, then asked,"How do you feel about Tetsuyuki?"

Megumi blinked at the question.

"H-he's fun to hang around with," Megumi answered. "He is serious when he needs to be, like his classes and work, but he's also laid back and easy going when he wants to be. Why? Something about him I should know about?"

"No," Ranma said quickly while looking in her roommates eyes. "Just curious. But you didn't really answer my question: How do you feel about him?"__

Megumi regarded Ranma for a few heartbeats before answering.

"I like him. A lot," Megumi admitted. "I'm not sure if he's 'Mr. Right', but I think he's pretty close. I figure if he is, it'll take care of itself. Why?"

"You've told him this?"

Megumi set her pencil down and folded her arms. "Yes. As a matter of fact I did tell him," she answered. "We've been going steady for awhile now and he's even dropped all his other girlfriends."

Ranma stared at her roommate in contemplation.

"Why are you asking this?" Megumi said, truly wanting to get to the dirt. "Is something going on between you and Tenchi?"

It was Ranma's turn to regard Megumi. Ranma sighed.

"I... I like Tenchi. A lot." Ranma's said before her voice faded. "But I'm..."  
_  
_Silence reigned between the girls. The moment dragged on and consumed two whole minutes before Megumi prompted Ranma.

"But you're what?"

Ranma's eyes took on a different look than Megumi was used to seeing. She'd been with Ranma long enough to have seen the many moods Ranma had. During the last few months of rooming with her, Megumi had never seen this look before.

"Ranma," she said. "What's wrong?"

For Ranma the question was much deeper. She grasped to define how she felt. Ranma knew she was better at dealing with her emotions than before, but some emotions she dreaded and this was one of them.

"I'm...," Ranma paused to swallow. "I'm scared."

Megumi eyes widened at that. She quickly rose from her seat and knelt down in front of Ranma and looked upon her with concerned eyes.

"Has Tenchi been threatening you?" Megumi asked seriously.

Ranma blinked-blink at the question and realized the misunderstanding.

"No!" Ranma strongly objected. "He's treated me better than anyone outside my family has. It's just that I'm... scared... about how I... feel about him."

Megumi let out a sigh of relief.

"How do you feel about him?"

"I... lo-like him, I think." Ranma waffled. Megumi looked sternly into Ranma's eyes.

"Just like him?"

Ranma looked at her hands that were now in her lap. Hands are interesting.

"I think I love him," she quietly confessed.

Megumi smiled.

"Are you going to tell him?"

Ranma thought a moment, then shook her head.

"Why on earth not?" Megumi asked, incredulous at Ranma's answer.

"Because," Ranma worked out. "If I tell him and he doesn't feel that way...," the rest drifted off, but Megumi got the idea. Rejection is always hard.

"Ranma," Megumi said while taking the redhead's hands in her. "You gotta tell him how you feel. If he doesn't feel the same about you, it would be better to know now than risk the possibility of passing up a good thing."

"But how I feel scares me," Ranma admitted.

Megumi looked at Ranma's eyes and saw the fear in them.

"You owe it to yourself and Tenchi to tell him how you feel," Megumi said gently. "Or do you plan on going on this way?"

Ranma shook her head and lowered her eyes. Fear of rejection. Ranma had felt betrayed and rejected years ago when her ex-father and the Tendos turned on her. It was an awful feeling that ripped into her heart and she had never truly forgotten it. She had no desire to experience that feeling again.

_"I gotta do something,"_ Ranma thought to herself. _"I can't keep dodging the issue. That is what a coward would do."  
_  
Ranma raised her eyes from her lap to look at her roommate's eyes. Megumi was still on the floor before Ranma, holding her hands.

"I'll tell him," Ranma said while gaining a decisive light in her eyes. She stood dramatically with a fist over her chest and proclaimed, "When we get together tomorrow - I'll tell him."

- + - + - + -

_"There's got to be something I'm overlooking. There's got to be something for me to latch on to,_" Pluto thought with frustration as she attempted to sort the endless number of timelines out. It was proving a frustrating task made more frustrating as the flow of time move on, shifting, crossing over and merging the time streams here and there.

Sailor Pluto was even unsure how long she had been working on the problem, for time was meaningless where she was.

_"I should have had a contingency plan for this. I never thought that all the reference points would be..."_

She stopped in mid-thought.

_"There is one!"_ she thought excitedly. _"I didn't think of it as one because it wasn't designed for that."  
_  
Using her staff, Pluto made some very fine-tune adjustments in the Gates. The mass of intersecting lines appeared to sort themselves out, until a single strand, representing one timeline was present. In that timeline, a point - no more, no less- was visible as it moved from past to present.

"There!" Pluto said aloud in triumph. "Ranma's space/time tracker."

The single dot that represented the beacon of Ranma's space/time tracker also represented the here and now to Pluto. She was blinded to the past or future at this point, but she could now find the present. Also, the single dot that was unique to the correct timeline and using the Gates of Time as another space/time point, she could have the Gates start replacing the new reference points.

_"Thank god she's wearing it," _Pluto thought as she watched the throbbing dot that was her timeline. _"I'll have the Gate start replacing the reference points, I hope she keeps wearing it while..."_

Her thoughts sputtered out as looked closely at the dot, making a small adjustment the dot swelled up so she could inspect it in detail.

_"What is this?_" she thought as she noticed a barely perceptible filament of light spiral away from the dot.

_"Someone has tapped into the tracker!"_ Pluto realized. _"No one should be able to do that!"  
_  
She stopped and considered that. _"Then again, no one or nothing was supposed to wipe out the reference points either." _

Pluto's eyes narrowed.

_"When I get back, I'll have to call an emergency meeting. I can't tell them exactly what's going on - but, I can tell them it is bad."_

Pluto continued on her task to make the jump into the correct timeline.

_"I have to get there quickly,"_ she concluded to herself. _"That means working with this single point."  
_  
She frowned. _"That's going to be like walking a tight rope, but I have to try."_

- + - + - + -

Tenchi watched Ranma as she danced.

He loved to watch Ranma. Whether he was just watching her as he sparred with her, walked with her, danced with her and...

Well, he found that he just loved watching her.

Right now he was dancing with her. They moved together rhythmically to the beat of the music. Someone decent was singing on stage, something that he was grateful for, but at the moment Tenchi didn't care. All his attention was focused on a certain redhead in front of him.

He found that he liked to study every detail in her movements. The way her shoulders moved to the beat of the music that countered the thrusting of her hips. How when she raised her arms above her head, it accentuated her figure. He looked upon the way her hair, done up it her trademark ponytail, flew around her head like a living thing.

He scrutinized Ranma's face as she danced. Her head would cock to one side slightly, always in perfect time to the music, her eyes hidden behind half closed lids. Then as she titled her head to the other side, she would open those eyes. He discovered that he would be lost in those expressive, blue eyes that seemed to reach deep inside him.  
_  
"Man, I got it bad,"_ he commented to himself.

He looked at her again, this time she was smiling at him. Butterflies invaded his stomach. "Oh man, I got it bad."

"What?" Ranma asked while still dancing.

Tenchi blink-blinked, then froze in mid dance step as he realized that he said the last thought aloud.

"Are you all right?" a concerned Ranma asked as she waved a hand in front of Tenchi's face.

"Yes, thank you," he said with a smile and a nod. "Just need to rest up a bit."

Taking her by the hand, Tenchi led an unresisting, but contemplative Ranma back to their table.

_"I gotta tell him,"_ Ranma's mind raced as she reveled in the feeling of his hand in hers. _"I gotta."_

She sat next to him as Megumi and Tetsuyuki stood and took their turns at the dance floor.

- + - + - + -

Concentrating on achieving her goal, Sailor Pluto carefully made her way through he morass of space/time to what she hoped was her home timeline. Her surroundings were much like passing through a transparent tunnel with a multitude of other tunnels intercepting it from all directions. The confusing array of timelines and dimensions that crossed Pluto's path meant that she had to stop and recheck her bearings with her staff, before proceeding.

_"So many dimensions to get lost in," _Sailor Pluto thought as she made her way. She unknowingly echoed the sentiments that Sailor Sun had, two years prior.

Taking one last bearing and hoping for the best, Sailor Pluto used her staff to open the way. Pushing her staff into the space/time continuum, she followed it through and stepped into the here and now.

Pluto materialized by a low wall that was topped by a chain link fence between a street and a canal or creek. She was happy to have ended up on the dry street instead of in the water some twenty feet away. Looking about, she spotted storefronts across the way with their welcoming Japanese signs. She also discovered that her arrival hadn't gone unnoticed by the small crowd that started to gather around her.

_"Good," _she thought. _"Right timeline and right country - but where and exactly when?"_

Examining the buildings and finding no clues there, Sailor Pluto approached one of the people in the gathered crowd around her.

"Excuse me?" she asked politely, giving the circumstances. "I lost my space/time reference points. I know I'm in the right timeline, but can you tell me where and when I am?"

She was answered with blank stares. She cleared her throat and tried again.

"Where am I?" she asked the crowd plainly.

"Um...," someone said. "You're in Kashiwa City."

"Kashiwa City?" Pluto asked and was greeted with many nodding heads. _"That's northeast of Juuban,"_ she thought.

"What date is it?" She asked the crowd.

After finding her answers, Pluto hurried back to Juuban. She was in the right timeline and the right date, or as near as Ranma's space/time tracker could get her. It was a tricky maneuver only having two points to work with, Ranma's and the Gate of Time's.

_"I'm about two months from where I went into the Gates," _she thought. _"I need to get in contact with the others and let them know what's going on."  
_  
Usually traveling like she was used to meant using at least seven points. One, the Gates of Time, was the fixed point, the other six were divided between independent space and time points. This helped Pluto move between the Gates and where/when ever she needed to be. Without the vast array of reference points, moving from the Gates of Time to the here and now with just the two points was dangerous and one mistake could've left Pluto lost in space/time.

But she managed to pull it off.

Not wanting to risk unnecessarily losing herself in the confusing mess that space/time had become by teleporting around, Pluto ditched the crowd, found a secluded off road and de-transformed into her civilian self. Then Setsuna continued her trek toward Juuban using more conventional methods.

- + - + - + -

Ranma and Tenchi were taking a breather as Tetsuyuki and Megumi took their turn on the dance floor. They were seated close together, heads almost touching, in order to hear each other other the din of the club.

"Say Tenchi," Ranma said tentatively. "I got-, I have to tell you something."

Tenchi looked Ranma in the eye and waited. After a few moments when Ranma didn't continue, he broke the silence.

"What is it, Ranma?" he asked in a voice with thin traces of concern in it. "Is there something wrong?"

"Umm," Ranma grasped at straws. "No! It's... it's just...," her voice trailed off into nothing.

_"I'm such a coward!" _she mentally berated herself. _"I can't say it! He'll think I'm an idiot!"  
_  
"Ranma," Tenchi said gently as he took her hands into his. "Is there something the matter?"

Ranma felt the blood drain from her face.

_"God, why is this so hard?" _she thought. So nervous with her own inability to speak her heart, she failed to notice Tenchi's behavior.

_"Something's wrong,"_ Tenchi thought. _"I hope she's not trying to... not see me anymore."  
_  
The two stared at one another as the club seemed to fade into the background.

"What's on your mind?" Tenchi ventured.

_"You are,"_ Ranma thought as she spoke, "Ahh... Umm..."

Tenchi studied the girl seated next to him. She opened her mouth several times in her attempt to say something, but nothing came out. Ranma fidgeted in her seat, but all during this, she kept her eyes locked on Tenchi's. Ranma screwed up her courage and forged ahead.

"Tenchi," she began tentatively again. "I think that-"

Just as she was about to finish, Megumi and Tetsuyuki returned to the table.

"Whoa!" Tetsuyuki said loudly. "That was good. You guys up for another round or you ready to go?"

_"Dammit!"_ Ranma screamed to herself. _"Just when I got the guts to tell him!"_

- + - + - + -

The cab of the train was packed.

The metal finish of the train's interior matched that of its exterior, right down to the lime green trim. Chrome rods ran the length of the cabin overhead, poles connected the rods to the floor of the cabin. Straps, with a hand hold on them, dangled down from the rods. The train was full of salary men and office ladies heading home after a hard day's work. Interspersed between the professionally dressed men and women were high school students also heading home from their late school clubs or heading out to party.

Setsuna tried to ignore her surroundings as she pondered the situation and held on to the strap as the train made its way. She was unpleasantly surprised how crowded it was at this time of night and was a little irritated on having to stand, occasionally pressed up against so many complete strangers. Not being one that frequented the trains and having no basis for comparison, she idly wondered if this was normal.

_"What to do?"_ she pondered and planned. "_I could head back to my apartment, but that's too far..."  
_  
Sighing and wishing the train was faster, she stared emptily out the windows. The brightness of the interior of the train contrasted with darkness of the night making everything except the brightest lights outside the train invisible.

_"I'll head for the shrine," _she concluded. "_And use the phone there."_

Setsuna mentally cursed herself for letting the batteries of her cell phone go down for the twentieth time that evening. She also cursed herself for not have a communicator handy and becoming so dependent on the Gates of Time for keeping contact with the other Scouts. It didn't help that the very train she needed to take pulled into the station before she could even think about using a public phone.

_"I got dependent on one thing,"_ Setsuna thought as she recalled something that Ranma had said. _"When this gets sorted out, I'm going to have to make some contingency plans."  
_  
The train made a curve and the slight gee force made two men lean into her slightly. Luckily they didn't try to grope her, one was busy reading a newspaper, the other a manga.

_"I'll see about getting Rei's grandfather out of the shrine,"_ she thought getting back to the problem. _"Then, getting everyone together."  
_  
As the train closed the distance between her and Juuban, Setsuna continued to mentally go over what she was going to tell the rest.

- + - + - + -

The two couples made their way back to the dorms, Tenchi and Ranma trailing behind Megumi and Tetsuyuki. Ranma was in emotional turmoil.  
_  
"I was so close, so very close!"_ she griped to herself._ "I don't know if I can ever tell him now."  
_  
Ranma's mind rummaged through her emotional turmoil.

_"If I tell him and he doesn't feel the same way as me..." _Ranma thought gloomily. _"...then my heart of glass would just shatter!"  
_  
Her shoulders sagged a bit as uncertainty and depression seized her. Tenchi noticed her posture and mistook it.

"Cold?" He asked.

"Huh?" Ranma replied, being torn from her thoughts and emotions.

Tenchi placed a hand on her shoulder and stopped walking.

"Ranma," he began to say, before turning his attention to Megumi and Tetsuyuki. "Guys? Would you mind going on without us - I think we need to talk."

Ranma and Tenchi's roommates looked at each other and back at them. Megumi gave Ranma a look mixed with concern and encouragement.

"Sure," Megumi answered for both of them, then addressed Ranma. "I'll see you back at the dorm."

Ranma and Tenchi watched the other couple move off into the lighted walkway. After they disappeared, Tenchi turned his full attention to his date. In the dimly lit walkway, they were alone. It was Tenchi's turn to screw up his courage.

"Ranma," he began. "I need to know how do you feel about me."

Ranma was caught completely off guard by the question. Ever since they left the club, she'd been trying to figure out a way to tell him how she thought she felt. The only problem was that she wanted to tell him with out really telling him, therefore sparing her any embarrassment if it didn't work out. Ranma stared at the taller young man under the light of the street light, frozen like a statue, fumbling for words.

Tenchi watched her for what seemed like an eternity as Ranma desperately tried to get her emotions together. He sighed.

"I guess it was a stupid question, huh?" he finally said depressingly, breaking the silence.

_"I gotta say something! I'm such an idiot!" _Ranma's mind screamed. _"I've fought in life and death battles and I'm afraid to tell him that I love him! - I think I love him! I'm pathetic!" _

"C'mon," Tenchi said somewhat depressingly as he turned toward the direction of the dorms. "I'll walk you home."

Ranma spoke for the first time since the unexpected question was popped.

"Ten... chi..., I..., I...," she stammered out, reflecting her brain freeze.

Tenchi turned back to Ranma with a quizzical look on his face. The redhead was still rooted to the spot, stammering about with her words. He blinked a few times and moved closer to the befuddled red head.

"Ranma?" he asked softly, growing concerned and wondering what was the matter.

Ranma stopped her stammering and tried to look into Tenchi's brown eyes. In her over-nervous condition, she was having difficultly doing that. _"I gotta say something! I gotta do something!"  
_  
Tenchi leaned down to better look at Ranma's face, hidden in the shadows of her bangs. "Ranma?" he tentatively asked. "Are you alright?"

Ranma stared at the face of Tenchi as it hovered in front of her. A thousand different thoughts and emotions flooded through her, locking in her in a indecisive state. She quaked.

_"I gotta do something - anything!"_ her mind screamed in anguish.

Before Tenchi could blink, Ranma had her lips pressed firmly on his.

- + - + - + -

It was late when Setsuna exited the Juuban Station. The sky was dark and starless in the city haze. The street lamps lit the area up in a surreal glow as Setsuna looked about to get her bearings. After a moment of study, she spied the lighted Tokyo Tower nearby - less than a half mile away against the blackness of the sky. Realizing where she was, she quickly made for the Cherry Hill Shrine.

Setsuna wasn't sure how long or far she walked, so engrossed in trying to figure out how to get Rei's grandfather out of the shrine. Before too long, she found herself passing through the Shrine gates. She let of a sigh of relief upon noting that Rei's grandfather apparently was not in. Letting herself in, not quite legally, Setsuna made her way to the phone. Dialing a well remembered number, she held the receiver up to her ear.

After the first ring a familiar voice answered the call. "Hello?"

"Rei," Setsuna said into the phone. "It's me - Setsuna."

"What's wrong?" Rei asked already picking up the signs of distress in Setsuna's voice. "Where are you?"

"I'm at the shrine. We need to have an emergency meeting," Setsuna stated. "We need to get everyone together as quickly as possible."

- + - + - + -

Tenchi overcame his shock of Ranma's lips on his and soon found himself returning Ranma's kiss. It turned into a tentative kiss after Ranma's initial lip mash and when they parted lips, the kiss only deepened. They parted briefly to make sure no one else was around before pulling each other into a tighter embrace and reengaging their lips.

Standing there, in the dimly light walkway, Ranma and Tenchi expressed their feelings without words...

Then the loud sound, much like that of a cell phone's ring, broke the moment. Ranma's communicator was buzzing loudly for attention in her purse.

- + - + - + -  
- + - + - + -

Notes:

I can't believe it has been a year since I started this. Where'd the time go? It is amazing what started out as a one shot and a lark grew and grew into this. As always, I would like to thank everybody that took the time to leave a review. I tried to 'pick up the pace' with this chapter without skimping. I'll trust you, the reader, tell me if I succeeded or not.

To the people who complimented me on my improved writing: I thank you, but I must give credit where credit is due: Ghost in the Machine. Ghost's patience, pre-reading, comments, and sub-contracting my wife to "whop me upside the head" when I kept making the same stupid mistakes over and over again has been chiefly responsible for my improvement.

To ColdCypher who wrote: "... what was your wife's thoughts on this fic? (I'm curious :P:D lol)"  
_  
_I don't know what my wife thinks about my fic, she hadn't read any of it in about nine months. She got caught up in her own hobby and hadn't had time to looked at it. My daughter has read though, and has deemed it "very, very cool".

To Impatient who wrote: "If you're waiting for 500 reviews,..."

I don't post based on the number of reviews I get, I post when a chapter is ready.

At this point I am working on part ten (which I have been fighting writer's block on for awhile), part eleven (which has been going smother than part ten), and various other scenes for future chapters. I also have been dabbling in my "anti-writer's block" story - which has helped me get pass those moments when I drew a blank as to what to write in the past. Overall, the last year has been fun and hope it will still be fun at the end of all this.

Thanks for reading


	29. University Part 10

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-  
-o-o-o-o-o-o-

University Part 10

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

In the dimly lit and deserted walkway, Ranma and Tenchi embraced each other. Ranma was lost in the moment, a moment that was all too brief.

- Buzzzzzzz -

The annoying buzzing sound couldn't have come at a worse time. Ranma and Tenchi broke their kiss with a light 'smacking' sound as their lips parted. Ranma opened her eyes and looked into the eyes of the man she'd grown to love.

"Tenchi..," Ranma started to say before being interrupted again by the demanding buzzing from her purse.

- Buzzzzzzz -

Ranma sighed. She untangled one arm from Tenchi and opened their embrace slightly. They kept one arm around each other as Ranma fumbled in her purse with the other. Pulling the cell phone that Akiko gave her last summer from the depths of her purse, she hit the call button and held it up to her ear.

"Hello?" she asked into the phone.

- Buzzzzzzz -

Ranma pulled her face away from her cell phone and looked dumbly at it. Blink-blinking, she turned off the phone in her hand and once again dug into her purse. Reaching to the bottom, she pulled out a round, flat object - like a woman's compact - and opened it. Ranma - mindful of Tenchi's presence - pressed two buttons, one to kill the video, the other to turn off the speakerphone, and then held it up to her face like a cell phone and spoke into it.

"Hello?"

_"Ranma?"_ The voice asked then continued on. _"Thank god. It's Rei, listen: Something's just came up. Something big. Setsuna has called an emergency meeting. We need you and Ami to get here as soon as possible. Oh, we're not meeting at the shrine, get Ami and met us at the park where we fought the Protectors."_

Ranma stared at Tenchi, whom she still had an arm around and did not want to let go.

"Now?" Ranma asked exasperatedly into the device as she glanced again at Tenchi before refocusing on the conversation.

_"YES NOW!" _an irate voice said loudly over the tiny speaker, nearly making Ranma drop her communicator.

"Okay. Okay. Jezz," Ranma said. "Be there as soon as I can." Ranma then groused to herself. _"What in the hell can be so important after nothing for so long?"_

Ranma closed the round communicator and turned her attention to the matter at hand.

"Um... Hi," she said shyly.

Tenchi raised an eyebrow. He didn't ask about Ranma having two cell phones. In Japan it was common for people to have more than one. "Is there anything wrong?" _  
_  
"I really don't know," Ranma admitted. "Somethings happened to... one of my friends back home."

The stared at one another slowly drifting into a closer embrace.

"I'm sorry. I have to go," Ranma said quietly. "I promised I'd help out."

"Anything I can do?' Tenchi asked while hugging Ranma close, genuinely wanting to help.

Nose to nose, Ranma moved up closer to Tenchi's face and answered with a kiss.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Sailors Sun and Mercury stepped through the rent in space and into a dimly lit open area of Juuban Park where the rest of the Senshi rest were waiting.

"Hi guys," Sun said cheerfully. She was happy with the way things were turning out with Tenchi. Then she noticed the serious expression on Pluto's face. Then she noticed that all of the Senshi were present. "What's... up... ?"

"I have bad news," Pluto said gravely.

"What?" Mercury and Sun asked at the same time.

"The Gates of Time have been sabotaged. Deliberately," Pluto said.

"How?" Moon asked as the remaining girls focused on what had happened.

"Someone or something removed the Gates' reference points along the timelines," Pluto explained. "I was lost, until I was able to lock onto Ranma's tracker. That is how I was able to get back."

"I don't understand," Moon said. "What do you mean?"

"In a nutshell, I can see all the timelines from the big bang to the collapse of the universe," Pluto explained. "But without the reference marks that the Gates of Time use to lock onto individual lines, I can't find which one is our timeline or where it's going."

"How could this have happened?" Mercury asked, truly concerned at this change of events.

"I'm not sure," Pluto said. "It happened so suddenly that I really cannot say. I can say however, that it had to be a deliberate act."

Silence fell among the circle of girls in the park.

"Why?" Mercury questioned. "Could there have been some natural event that could have done this?"

Pluto shook her head. "No. The reference points that the Gates of Time lock onto were specifically targeted." Pluto looked at the others in the group with a stern look to get her point across. "There have been some natural events that have disabled or even destroyed some of the points in the past," she continued. "However, to have all of them wiped out, suggests a deliberate act."

Before that fact could fully sink in, Pluto pressed on.

"There's more," Pluto said, "Someone else is tracking Ra- Sailor Sun using the space/time tracker."

"Are they listening in?" Mercury asked, alarmed.

"No," Pluto answered assuredly. "It is a very low level tap, enough for tracking proposes, but nothing else. My guess is that they were afraid if they went any further it would have been detected instantly."

"Why didn't you say something before," Sun asked incredulously then with realization. "That's why you had us meet here at the park, isn't it?"

"Yes," Pluto confirmed. "This was the safest place away from where any of us live."

Sun looked at Pluto and then at the bracelet on her arm. "Well," Sun said and she made a motion with her free hand, "I'll just take this off and-"

"No," Pluto said suddenly. "You can't. Not yet."

Sun blink-blinked at Pluto along with the other Senshi.

"Why not?" Sun asked sharply.

"Your tracker is the only functioning reference point outside the Gates," Pluto continued. "The Gates of Time is using your signal to speed the replacing of the destroyed reference points."

"How does that work?" Mercury asked curious as to the workings of the Gates of Time.

"Ranma's tracker is keyed to her," Pluto explained. "If she removes the tracker, it would break the connection between her and the Gates. This would slow the process of replacing the reference point considerably."

Mercury nodded for Pluto to continue as the rest of the Scouts listened intently.

"As time passes from present to past, so does the tracker," Pluto said. "By using the tracker, which is locked onto the present timeline on one end, and to the Gates on the other, the reference points can be replaced by triangulation faster. Actually, more than simple triangulation is involved since what happens is carried out to a higher degree because of the various timelines, dimensions and spaces involved. So having a 'fixed' point in the present is important as well as helpful."

"So if Ranma removed her tracker..." Jupiter mused aloud.

"Ranma's space/time tracker is the only 'real' point in the present," Pluto answered the unasked question. "Removing the tracker would greatly complicate the repairs."

"I don't wanna be tracked!" Sun complained. "Is there another way?"

Pluto nodded. "Of course," she said while holding her Garnet staff up. "All we need to do is change the frequency that you're being tracked at. We'll encode it to a variable one keyed to the Gates to make it more difficult for our - opponents to crack. We'll tend to that after we discuss other matters."

Silence fell among the girls as they contemplated what was said.

"I have news myself," Mercury announced, nervous at the revelations. "I don't know if it is related, but I discovered that the Central Moon computer has been accessed - by someone other than me."

"What?" Pluto, Neptune, Mars, Jupiter and Moon said at the same time.

Mercury nodded. "Sometime during the summer an unknown person accessed the databases of the Moon Computer, specifically on us. Not only that, they managed to access the restricted files also."

"What!" Mars asked. "Why would someone want to do that?"

"With the Gates of Time disabled, we can't monitor what will happen," Pluto said. "And now someone is digging around for information on us on our own computers and tracking one of us using our own technology."

"My guess that something is going to happen that someone doesn't want us to know about," Mercury concluded. "And wants to make sure that we stay out of the way."

"Is there anyway to repair or undo what's been done to the Gates?" Jupiter asked.

Pluto nodded. "As I said, it was very fortunately that Sun was wearing a space/time tracking bracelet. Using that I was able to locate the 'here and now', but it will take the Gates time to replace enough reference points to get any readings for even the near future."

"How are you going to prevent them from getting wiped out again?" Mercury asked.

"I'm changing the 'phase' of the reference points so that they will be connected to, but slightly outside the space/time curvature that they're placed in. This means altering the Gates so it can read the new points correctly."

"Trying to hide them as you replace them...," Mercury mused aloud.

Pluto nodded. "A simplified way of putting it. But yes, I'm trying to hide them or at least make them harder to find. I hope hiding the new points is enough. I really don't understand how the olds ones could've been wiped out to begin with."

"How long will this take?" Venus asked.

Pluto held up her staff and gazed into the orb that capped the top of it.

"It will take at least three weeks for enough reference points to be created to get a good reading on what's going on... say about two months in the future."

"A lot can happen in that time..." Moon whispered. Moon paced back and forth, lost in thought. After a few moments she looked at the others.

"If this was a deliberate act," Moon began.

"It was, I assure you," Pluto interrupted.

"And the tracking of Sun and the access to the Moon Computer?" Moon asked.

"Deliberate as well," Pluto answered as Mercury nodded in agreement.

A heavy silence fell.

"Okay," Moon said, slightly irritated at this turn of events. "Since these were deliberate acts, we have to assume that this might be a precursor to an invasion."

The weight of the silence increased.

"Invasion?" Jupiter questioned. "That's quiet a leap. How do you figure that?"

"Well, in most cases an invader will either disable, mislead or misdirect the intelligence of the country they want to invade, " Moon explained. "The Gates of Time is the greatest intelligence gathering device we have. Without it, we can't tell what the possibilities are of what's going to happen. Essentially, we've been blinded."

The other girls looked at Usagi with bugged eyes.

"Then there's the fact that Sun is being tracked," Moon continued, unaware of the looks she was drawing. "This means that whoever tracked her also knows she is a Senshi... which most likely means that they know who we are. We need to be on guard people. If this is serious, they will most likely strike when we are in our non-Senshi forms."

The group continued to stare at Sailor Moon.

"Tapping into the Moon Computer...," Moon mused, still unaware of the looks directed her way. "Files that pertained to the Senshi. This means that this unknown party knows all about us and our powers, our limits and probably our weaknesses."

Moon stopped her pacing and pondered in silence before blinking and looking up ant the shocked looks around her. Silence continued to permeate the area as Moon became aware of the looks she was drawing.

"What?" she asked.

"It's just...," Venus said before faltering.

"You said something that made sense," Mars put in. "It just surprised us."

Sailor Moon huffed. "Well I have been paying attention in class, you know," she said indigently.

"I... mean, I...," Jupiter faltered.

Moon pouted more - looking rather cute while doing so.

"There's one thing that bothers me," Mercury piped in bring the conversation back on track. "Shouldn't you have seen this coming? I mean, it doesn't make sense that something this big could've been overlooked."

Pluto conceded the point. "You're right. The fact that I didn't see it concerns me as well."

Pluto had everyone's attention.

"You see the Gates of Time are not foolproof," she continued. "There are ways of escaping detection. Sailor Sun is a good example. She doesn't register to the Gates of Time. Without the bracelet she would be completely invisible."

"So whoever did this has the knowledge on how the Gates work and knew how to get around it..." Uranus said.

"I want everyone to be on guard," Moon reaffirmed. "We don't know what we're dealing with and I don't want anyone caught unawares."

The Senshi nodded in agreement.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Ranma and Tenchi crossed the campus together, walking side by side as they neared the Library. It was between classes and they used the free time to catch up on studies or just hang out and be near one another. Ever since she returned from helping her friend out a few weeks ago, Tenchi had picked up on a slight change in his redheaded love interest. It was like Ranma was worried or preoccupied about something.

"Ranma?" he asked. "Is everything alright?"

Ranma turned her head and looked at Tenchi's face as they continued to walk.

"Ah.. yeah. Why?"

"Well you seemed a little worried about something. Is there anything wrong?"

Ranma pondered a few moments. "No. Not really," she lied. "I'm just a little strung out by classes and... some personal problems."

Tenchi walked in silence for a few seconds. "I hope I'm not one of your problems."

Ranma smiled as Tenchi opened the door for her. "Not anymore," she said slyly as she ran the tips of her fingers under his jaw-line as she passed. Tenchi's face flushed a bit as he followed Ranma inside.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The Mistress had followed the tendril of energy here, to the Yoshi Cafe American. Not wanting to hurry, for she felt no real need too, she strung the simple task out so as to enjoy her surroundings more. Still disguised as a man, she stood outside and examined the invisible lines that flowed from the building. The Mistress studied the each and every one of the lines and was identifying them.

_"Sun,"_ she thought as she looked at the connection that she had followed.

_"This one is Mercury, this one... Mars,"_ she thought as she continued to mentally catalogue the lines. _"Here's Moon," _she smirked openly at that one. _"Maybe I should... no - I'll have Sun do that once she's free. It'll be a little present from me to her."  
_  
Imagining Ranma, as Sailor Sun, crushing Sailor Moon's head between her hands slowly and painfully into a bloody pulp sent shivers of joy down the Mistress' spine. Shaking off the bloody image that warmed her heart, she entered the establishment and studied the faces in the crowd. It was lunch and every table was filled with people eating, talking or doing scraps of paperwork before returning to their jobs. Her eyes swept the room, looking for her prey.

A perky college age girl came up to him and bowed.

"Welcome to Yoshi Cafe American," she said with a smile. "I'm very sorry sir, but all our seating is full. Would you like to wait for table?"

The disguised Mistress looked at the youth and smiled a genuine smile. "No thank you," she answered. "I'll come back when you are not so busy."

The waitress bowed politely to the fake man and returned to waiting on her customers. The Mistress took one last look around, turned on his heel and departed.

_"Yes," _she thought. _"The Queen is here. I'll return when there is no one around to have a little talk with her_."

The Mistress started to whistle a lively tune as she made her way down the street.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Sparring turned from a serious endeavor of the art to more of a playtime.

Ranma and Tenchi were engaged in one of there regular sparring sessions and Ranma had tagged Tenchi for the second time in a row. In the middle of a parry, Ranma raised a hand, halting the fight.

"Tenchi," Ranma asked in a slightly irate tone. "What's wrong? For the last few times you've been... going easy on me."

Tenchi froze with his bokken held high and looked at Ranma with guilty eyes.

"Ten-chi!" Ranma pouted. "You have been holding back on me."

Tenchi scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously. Ranma cocked her head to one side.

"Yes?" She asked.

"Well...," Tenchi said slightly more nervous. "I was just thinking..."

Silence fell between the two for a brief moment.

"I've been thinking of taking a break from... sparring."

Ranma smiled.

"Oh?" Ranma questioned knowingly as she slinked toward the pigtailed man. "Do you have something else in mind?"

"Yeah," he breathed out, locking his eyes onto Ranma's.

"Well this park is pretty quiet," Ranma pointed out while batting her eyes. "Hardly anyone comes here at this time of day."

Tenchi smiled. "We should," he said rather seriously, "be mindful of public displays of affection."

Ranma smile broadened and said as she wagged her eyebrows, "Then let's find somewhere not so public."

And they did.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

She had been planning for weeks. She didn't want to rush things, living long had taught her patience. Patience was going to be important since she was dealing with a new factor.

_"I have identified all the Senshi,"_ she thought, somewhat disappointed. _"They're always so easy to find - no challenge at all."  
_  
She leaned heavily on her staff and smiled. _"The real fun is going to be Sailor Sun." _she cackled. _"There's nothing like helping the birth of a goddess along. With her here, this is going to be more fun than the last time."_

She twirled her staff around playfully.

_"Once she achieves godhood, she'll see the truth of everything like I did."_

Slicing the air with her staff, a glowing rent appeared floating in mid air.

_"Now,"_ she thought maliciously._ "Time for the first moves."_

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Twenty ships from the Forty Ninth Juraian Space Forces were patrolling between the Oort cloud and the Solar System proper monitoring for the evacuation order to pull the royal family off the third planet if need be. As far out as the ships were from Sol, it would only take a small jump for the strike team to actually be over the royal family's airspace. The whole strike team would be in and out before anyone knew they were there.

It was an by all definitions, an ordinary and uncomplicated assignment. A baby-sitting chore. Ordinarily a quiet and unexciting duty. Just the way Commodore V'Scyoc, the person in charge of the fleet, liked it.

"Commodore?" a uniformed officer asked.

"Yes, Lieutenant?" the Commodore answered while signing some paperwork from his command chair.

"I'm getting... an anomaly," the officer nervously said. "Bearing three hundred twelve degrees, mark 6. Distance twenty four thousand miles and closing rapidly. "

"On screen," Commodore V'Scyoc said.

A semitransparent screen popped out in front of the Commodore and the bridge crew. In the center of the screen, a glowing dot was all that was visible.

"What is it?" Commodore V'Scyoc asked. "How did it get so close to the fleet without detection?"

"Unknown on both, sir," the science officer said. "The energy it is generating is enormous."

"Go to yellow alert," the Commodore said. "Shields up."

"Shields up, sir," a bridge crew echoed.

"Send the Spindrift and Marintha to investigate," the fleet commander ordered.

"Aye, sir," the communications officer said as she passed on the orders.

Two ships broke from the group and proceeded to the anomaly. The Commodore watched on the veiwscreen as the pair of Anne class ships approached the glowing dot in space.

"Sir," the science officer reported, voice filled with concern. "I'm measuring a huge energy spike."

"What kind of energy?"

The willowy man responded with panic lacing his voice. "I don't know," he said, panic growing in his voice. "It's too powerful to get an accurate reading on."

"Too powerful?" V'Scyoc questioned as he turned to his science officer. "Cross reference with the other shi-"

"Sir! The Marintha!"

The Commodore turned back to the screen in time to see a growing cloud of gas that was a starship a few moments before.

"What the hell happened?" V'Scyoc barked.

He was answered by a ball of light that exploded from the glowing dot that was the anomaly. From their viewpoint, the ball of streaking light looked tiny, insignificant - like a pinprick against the enormity of the Juraian ship. The small ball of light kissed the skin of the giant ship.

The ship glowed briefly and softly as if it was generating an aura, then became a cloud of expanding gas.

"Red alert!" the Commodore screamed. "All ships raise shields to full! All weapons systems on line and fire at will."

A chorus of 'yes sir's' resounded in the bridge.

"Sir, the target is closing on our position!"

"Record and transmit this to Juraian Space Command," V'Scyoc commanded. "I want a record of this sent back."

"Yes sir," the communications officer responded.

"Target acquired, sir! Firing port guns!"

Narrow beams of light lashed out across the void from several ships, the glowing object didn't even try to evade and was struck by several hundred powerful energy beams. The glowing object released more balls of light that disintegrated four more of the Juraian ships in quick succession.

"What the hell is that thing?" V'Scyoc yelled over the warning klaxons.

"Still unknown-," the science officer began before getting cut off.

"Incoming!" a panicked voice cried out.

There was an explosion, a large one, that made the whole ship shudder.

"The hull is breached!" one of the bridge officers reported. "Shields are firm and holding environmental integrity."

"Where is the enemy?" the Commodore demanded.

"Right here," a very feminine voice said while giggling, drawing the attention of everyone on the bridge.

The Commodore spun on the voice. The last thing he saw before he died with his ship and crew was a girl whose face was obscured by a rainbow effect and wearing a short skirt.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

_"What was that?" _Ranma asked herself as she was torn from her deep sleep by a feeling of... something she was not sure of. She shook her head and looked over at her roommate, who was lightly snoring in her bed. Ranma sat up slightly, sorting out what she was feeling. Nothing surfaced immediately.

_"It felt familiar somehow,"_ Ranma's mind insisted. _"It felt like... a nightmare."_

Ranma turned the feelings over in her mind some more and still nothing surfaced. Troubled, she even waited for her 'senshi' self to produce something. After waiting what she felt was a long enough time without an answer popping out of nowhere, she mentally turned the feeling over in her mind some more.

_"It did feel like a nightmare... **that** nightmare, but I don't remember having one."  
_  
Unable to grasp anything further from the feeling, Ranma laid back down and protectively covered herself with her blanket. She looked into the darkness of the room, seeking anything hiding there.

_"Now I'm getting paranoid,"_ she scolded herself. _"Probably was just a stupid dream."  
_  
In spite of her self reassurance, it was quite some time before she drifted back to sleep.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"How are you and Tenchi getting along?" Megumi asked her redheaded roommate.

Ranma looked up from her studies and turned to Megumi.

"We're fine," she answered with a smile. "Things seem to be working out."

"Still sparring?"

Ranma nodded.

"... and other things?" Megumi added coyly.

Ranma gave her roommate a half lidded look before breaking into a wide smile. "I don't kiss and tell."

Megumi's eyes widened. "You didn't. Did you?" she asked incredulously.

Ranma blink-blinked.

"Did wha-," Ranma began before realization hit her like an anvil to the head. "No! We haven't. I mean, we've kissed and... stuff." Ranma blushed slightly before a goofy grin crept across her lips. She then readdressed her roommate. "But we haven't... you know."

Megumi looked slightly disappointed for a brief instant before blooming into a smile. "So... what are your plans?"

Ranma furrowed her brow as she seriously thought over the question. "Plans?"

"Yes, plans," Megumi said in a slightly exasperated tone. "Is he 'Mister Right'?"

Ranma considered that question, before answering. "Like you said about Tetsuyuki, he is probably as close to 'Mister Right' that I have met. But..."

"But what?"

"I don't know," Ranma confessed. "I sense that there's... it's like there is a part of him I haven't seen yet."

"Is it bad?" Megumi asked in a concerned voice.

Ranma shook her head. "I don't think so. Maybe it's something that he is embarrassed about and doesn't want to talk about."

"He should tell you," Megumi pointed out. "If he loves you, there should be no secrets."

Ranma blink-blinked at her roommate.

"No secrets?" Ranma whispered.

Megumi nodded. "There is nothing that ruins a relationship faster than not being open or honest with each other."

Ranma stared at her roommate. "Since when did you become the relationship expert?" She asked as she crossed her arms.

"I'm no expert," Megumi answered with a smile. "It's just sound advice that an old friend gave me."

Ranma pondered. Could she trust Tenchi enough to tell him her secrets? To tell him everything? There were the other Scouts to consider, but if he was truly the one, she should be able to trust him with anything. And if she felt that she couldn't, did that mean she couldn't really trust him and wasn't really in love?

"What are you going to do?" Megumi asked, breaking into Ranma's thoughts.

Silence descended between the two as Ranma lowered her head in contemplation.

"I guess I'll do what you are doing," Ranma finally answered while raising her head and looking at Megumi. "Go with it and see where it leads."

She had much to think about.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Ranma finished her homework and closed the text book with a sigh. It had been several weeks since the Senshi meeting and all was still quiet. Ranma felt she was on her guard, however with nothing tangible to watch for, she started to fall into a careless casualness.

She raised her arms and stretched her back out. Ranma held the full stretch for a less than a minute before coming down from it. She let the warmth flow through her body as it relaxed. Reaching up to a low shelf nabbed a few sticks of "Men's Pocky" and munched away.

_"Jeez, that was easy," _she thought on her studies. _"I can't wait for Saturday though, I got the day off and Megumi wants us and our boyfriends to hit that bath house she's been talking about."_

Ranma reached up and snagged two more Pocky sticks.

_"I wonder what bath house? Megumi said it was close by."  
_  
Three more sticks of Pocky met their fate.

_"She's trying to keep it a surprise - knowing her it's probably a communal bath._"

Another two sticks of Pocky.

_"Oh well, that doesn't bother me, it's not like Tenchi hasn't seen me naked before,"_ Ranma mind drifted back to the unexpected peek at Tenchi's assets and blushed._ "Maybe I should drop a hint to Megumi that a communal bath wouldn't be a good idea."  
_  
More Pocky disappeared.

_"Man, these things are addictive,"_ she finally thought as she munched on the last of her treat.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

A glowing line that represented a rip in space/time appeared about two feet off the ground. It widened suddenly into a circular orifice that permitted passage of an elderly cloaked woman. She looked around the vast open room.

The room was huge, at least six hundred feet square with a two hundred foot ceiling. The interior walls were lined with heavy racks that were affixed to the them. On the racks were slightly humanoid shaped machines that were twenty-five feet tall and very nasty looking. Taking up most the space in the center of room were three long and wide bodied cigar shaped objects with blisters dotting their sides.

The room and its contents were covered in a layer of fine dust.  
_  
"The Imperial Power Suits and Strike ships are well preserved_," the old woman thought. _"It shouldn't take any time to get any of them moving,"_ she smiled, _"just a little will."  
_  
Reaching into the still existing gape in space/time, she pulled out a body of a young man.

_"With this 'volunteer'," _she thought smugly as she dragged the corpse behind her,_ "and a little tweaking of the powersuit's artificial intelligence, it will think that its pilot is dead and go into a high offense mode."  
_  
She continued to easily drag the body behind her, cackling loudly at what fun it would all be. Soon the cackling gave way to a cheerful tune that she whistled out through aged lips.

_"Oh this is going to be so great!_" she thought in excitement. She giggled a bit more on that thought before returning to her cheerful tune.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Ranma sat cross legged on the floor of her dorm room. It was one of those moments that had been occurring more often since Megumi was out with her boyfriend. Ranma was taking advantage of the time alone by attempting some of the exercises in the scrolls. So far what she had learned had been helpful in containing the massive amount of ki that she generated, but did nothing for her Senshi powers. But today, Ranma was going to that place deep with in her - a place she hadn't visited since she joined and consolidated herself.

It took time, or at least it felt like it took time. Meditating and shifting her mental state to inner awareness, she passed through what seemed like a long, dark and hazy tunnel. There was a bright light at the end of this tunnel and Ranma made her mental way to it. The tunnel opened up into a room without walls, in the center was a glowing crystal with a thin band around it.

A mental representation of her soul and the powers that flow through it.

_"Just like I remembered it,"_ Ranma thought as she approached the crystal. "_Though it seems... much stronger than recall."  
_  
The major difference that Ranma did note was that there were no 'other self's' there. Her mind was no longer fragmented by what she was in the Silver Millennium, and what she was born into in this life. Ranma was one mind, one body and one soul now. She found that rather peaceful.

Ranma studied the crystal closely looking for her answers there. It wasn't like it was one solid structure but a collection of many multi-facetted crystals joined together. Each crystal glowed with its own light, making up the whole. Ranma looked closer at the it. The overall crystal looked remarkably like the crystal that was in her dream when she got her powers. Her eye traced the band that kept, what was to her now, her cursed male body locked away. She smiled at that.

_"Amazing what can happen when you remember what you really were or are," _she thought. "_Being a guy now would be kinda... gross."_

Studying the hoop that banded the crystal Ranma started thinking, "_Could I make one of these to control my power?"  
_  
She studied the band closer, looking for anything helpful. The band appeared to be made up of woven strands of blueish light. She shook her head.

_"This is way beyond me,_" Ranma thought in dismay. _"It's way too complex."_

She turned her attention back to the crystal. It tickle a memory._ "This looks familiar... but where?" _She paused in thought for a moment._ "My... dream?"_

Ranma concentrated on the memory of the dream that she had. She tried to recall important bits and on certain things, hoping to find some answers.  
_  
... _the focuser?... she recalled from her dream.

_"Focuser? What's that?"_

... power we're infusing... Another tidbit.

"_Infusing power. How?"_

... Infusion tubes... Came her answer.

_"Infusion tubes. How would they work? How would the power be grafted into the person they were infusing it into?"_

... A woman in blue placed a crystal in a three pronged receptacle... another scene from the same dream.__

"The crystal." A feeling of disquietness crept into her a slow realization dawned on her. _"This is the one from the dream."  
_  
Ranma stood back before the representation of her soul and pondered. _"What did they do to us?"  
_  
-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The Mistress walked among the barren trees in the park. She ignored the crunching of the frozen grass underfoot as she followed the line of energy between the Queen and Ranma. While following it, she also studied it closely, more closely than before. Though she had been around for millennia, she had never attempted to do what she was about to do: Sever the ties gently.

Soon she found herself in a good spot: a secluded part of the empty part.

_"Let's see, first I should separate and sort out the in-coming and out-going lines,_" she thought as she worked on the connection. _"They based the connection on a loop - how stupid."_

Soon the invisible line of energy bulged and the individual lines became clearer.

_"Now let's take the out-going and short it out with the in-coming,"_ she thought as she pinched the out-going and in-going flows together. _"But slowly - slowly... I don't want my pet to be feel anything when the ties are severed, or the Queen for that matter."_

Carefully and slowly, the Mistress joined each line - reducing the connection reaching Ranma incrementally to nothing, while looping the connection back into itself so that the Queen would never sense the tampering. Both Ranma and the Queen would be completely unaware of the tampering.

_"Neither should notice a thing," _the women thought as she mentally patted herself on the back for her cleverness._ "The other Senshi will just have to suffer though when their ties are severed."_

She smiled at that thought.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The long, light brown haired women stepped out on the shiny surface of a cabinet door, she straightened the flowing blue robes she wore as she looked about. She found herself in a long corridor lined with tall lockers, each having a number etched onto the smooth reflective surface. Moving toward one marked '1701' in a flowing, floating way, she stopped and reached into her robes and extracted a thermos.

Unscrewing the top, she carefully placed the red thermos on the floor and backed away of it. Within seconds a swirling mass erupted from the glass and refined itself into a young girl, about thirteen with a long handled mallet, like a croquet mallet, slung to her back. She had long flowing hair like the other, but it was black instead light brown. Her robes were similar in appearance to the older one's, but the color was red.

"Are you sure you altered the file correctly," the older one asked as soon as the other girl settled onto the floor.

The young girl nodded. "Yes, added it right into the inventory system. It will look like it has always been there. No one will suspect a thing. Just like father said."

"Good," Belldandy said while carefully opening the locker so nothing would spill out. "Father said this was important and she would be needing this."

"This is like granting a wish before it's... wished for," Skuld said slightly confused by their mission.

"I admit it is unusual, but Father was very specific and said it was very important," Belldandy said as she placed a small box with a number etched on the top of it on a crowded shelf in the locker. "Father said she would want and need these soon - more than anything else."

"Why?" Skuld asked. "Who is this Ranma?"

"I... can't tell you," Belldandy said. "I promised father."

Skuld wasn't satisfied with the answer, but she knew she wasn't going to do any good to ask.

"All I can tell you," Belldandy continued as she sealed the locker, "when she is ready - she won't need these anymore."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

It was a cool day as Usagi and Makoto made their way down the wide sidewalk lined with the barren trees of late fall. It was the edge of winter as a light coating of snow covered the ground from an early snowfall. The two friends decided to get together to shop for warm clothes. Heading in the direction of the shopping district, they made light banter.

"How are you and Mamoru doing?" Makoto asked, her breath steaming in the air.

"Fine," Usagi beamed. "He's going to be in Tokyo for New Year's."

"I bet you'll be relieved to see him," Makoto said in a slightly suggestive way.

Usagi being sharper than she was two years ago, blushed lightly. "Maybe...," her voice trailed off.

Makoto giggled lightly at her friend's reaction. Usagi was always fun to tease.

Usagi and Makoto continued on their way down a sidewalk, oblivious to the fact that they were being followed. As the two friends entered the shopping district, their shadow trailed back and stopped.

_"I wish I could stay around and watch the festivities, but I have a loose end to tie up and this will make a prefect distraction," _the being masquerading as a thirteen year old child thought. _"Time to have fun with these two."  
_  
Reaching into her pocket, the young looking girl pressed a small, mundane button.

The carefree discussion that Usagi and Makoto was ended by an eerie sound that echoed off the surrounding buildings. Many pedestrians stopped what they were doing and looked about, confused. Usagi and Makoto also stopped and looked around, trying to find the source of the annoying noise.

Overhead a dark shape formed, wavering into existence. On the lower flank of the hovering, elongated craft, a blister opened and a heavy dark object plummeted to earth. The object slammed into the concrete road and sidewalk, fracturing its surface and sending shards everywhere. The object in the air wavered out of existence leaving behind the large, humanoid thing.

It stood tall enough that it would have no problems looking into a second story window. It was made of black metal and had a domed head with many lenses dotting the surface. On the chest, over where the heart would be were it human, was an emblem of some sort done up in gold. The arms that hung down at its sides were clawed, each had several tubes or barrels that protruded, ringing the hand. The massive legs were planted firmly into the ground, each of its three toes digging slightly into the concrete rubble underneath, cracking it further.

"What is that?" Makoto asked.

Usagi shook her head as they studied the inanimate robot looking thing that landed about three blocks from them. "I don't know," she said. "But it can't be good. Let's get somewhere and transform just in case."

The two girls ducked into an alley and came back out as Sailors Moon and Jupiter just in time to see the massive, black robot begin to move. Then all hell broke lose.

The metal monster seemed to look about before focusing its attention on a five story department store opposite the narrow road. It was obviously studying the structure, with its wide glass front filled with shoppers looking back at it. After a few seconds something moved on the robot's back, coming over the shoulder. It looked like an oversize two pronged fork. The fork stopped, pointing in the direction of the multistory store. The people inside the building panicked as if they sensed the danger in what was happening.

The prong of the fork glowed, then exploded in a cascade of light as the robot fired a salvo into the heart of the building. The building shook with the impact of the explosions that rocked its innards. The building belched smoke and shuddered as if uncertain what to do. Acting like a living thing that accepted its fate, the building leaned forward and collapsed into the street in a great bellowing cloud of debris.

Sailors Moon would never forget the screams of the people in the building as it went down.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Ranma and Tenchi were in Ranma's dorm room working on their respective studies. Tenchi had commandeered Ranma's desk and Ranma was sitting cross legged on her bed with an open book in her lap. One hand was resting on her knee with the corner of a page between her fingers, the other hand held a highlighter. Tenchi was busy scribbling facts down in note-cards to carry around and study in his free moments. They had been doing this in relative silence until Ranma stretched and yawned loudly.

"Need a break?" Tenchi asked looking up from his note cards.

Ranma nodded tiredly, then proceeded to work the soreness out of her neck. "Yeah. This is getting old and I'm getting stiff."

Tenchi pulled back from the desk and stretched. Relaxing with his hands in his lap, he looked and the redhead. "You wanna go spar or go for a walk or something?"

Ranma tilted her head amid another stretch and returned Tenchi's look with one of her own. "I choose... 'or something'."

Tenchi raised an eyebrow as he watched Ranma place her book on the bed and glided over to him. Glide wasn't the right way to describe the graceful movements that Ranma used, nor the slight but noticeable sway in her hips. She brushed Tenchi's hands from his lap and replaced them with her bottom. Once seated, she put her arms around his neck and looked at him in the eye.

"How's this for something?" she asked coyly.

Tenchi smiled and leaned forward. "Just fine."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Akiko was busy counting the till from the rush. The waitresses she'd hired had made quick work of cleaning the dining area and had left for their respective afternoon classes. The evening waitresses were hours away from showing up and Akiko's son had finished cleaning and prepping for the dinner rush.

"See you in a few hours," Yoshi said merrily as he headed out the front door.

Akiko sent him off with a nod and smile as she continued to count out the take from lunch.

She was sorting through the last of the bills when a strange feeling came over her. It was an overpowering feeling of being watched. So creepy and strong was the feeling that a lesser person might have emptied their bladder at the sensation.

_"Something's wrong,"_ she thought as she headed to explore the kitchen, the source of her odd feeling.

She peeked through the order pick up window and stared into an empty kitchen. As she looked, the feeling passed, leaving her with an uncertain feeling.

_"How odd,"_ Akiko wondered. _"What could it have been?"_

"Hello - Queen Serenity," a harsh voice said from behind.

Akiko spun around to come face to face with a tall man in his early twenties. They both stared at each other for a few heartbeats.

"Who are you?" she managed to ask after she collected herself.

"Just a stranger - oh don't misunderstand, we've met, but not in this... space."

Akiko eyes narrowed. Alarm bells were going off. There was something familiar about the man, yet it was very different at the same time.

"What do you want?" Akiko asked warily.

The man smiled an unfriendly smile as he morphed into woman.

"I want," the woman spoke as Akiko eyes widened, "to free the goddess."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"What the hell is that thing?" Mars asked as she shot off a thin beam of fire at the rampaging thing. She had been in the shopping district looking for some new winter clothes herself when she was drawn by the sounds of combat. Instead of two Senshi, the robot was now facing off three.

The thin, flaming beam penetrated the robots left shoulder with a small entrance hole and blew out a good chunk of the back. The robots left arm fell and dangled uselessly at its side. Sailor Moon had already destroyed the two pronged weapon earlier in the fight.

Along the barrel chested torso of the robot, smoke was pouring out of the holes that the attacking Senshi blew into it. In spite of the damage it received, it kept fighting in the most destructive way it could, as if it were trying to take as many innocents with it as possible.

The robots right arm was still live and active as Sailors Mars, Jupiter and Moon dodged a barrage of high powered energy blasts coming from a gattling-gun like device that was part of the arm. The three Senshi found themselves behind a partially collapsed wall that once was part of a store.

"Mars!" Moon address said Senshi. "See if you can take that other arm out!"

She then turned to the other fuku clad girl.

"Jupiter, you're with me! Let's see if we can draw it's fire to give Mars a clean shot!"

Both girls nodded to Sailor Moon.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

In another part of Tokyo, a young couple were blissfully unaware of the events around them. To say that they were lost in each other would be like saying the sun is only luke warm. Their kissing, which started out as merely a break from their studies, turned into a full blown make out session. As the the kissing intensified, the room seemed to warmed up considerably and the couple relieved the stuffiness by loosening their clothing a bit.

Hands started to roam.

Ranma inhaled sharply through their lip lock when Tenchi touched a particularly sensitive part of her anatomy. Instead of pulling away, she pressed herself closer to him.

The kiss broke and was replaced by panting. Ranma looked at Tenchi with sparkling eyes. "I love you."

Tenchi gazed into her eyes with equal interest. "I love you, too."

The young couple resumed their play.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The giant robots right leg was severed above the knee in mid-stride. Unable to compensate for its loss, since both arms were now out of commission, it fell into a crashing heap onto the ground raising great plumes of dust on impact. The three Senshi were on it before it could muster a counter offensive and soon the street was littered with scrap metal.

Sailor Moon opened a compact looking device and pecked at the tiny buttons with a dainty hand.

"Mercury?" she said into the device.

_"Yes?"_ a tiny voice replied.

"Jupiter, Mars and I just took down a robot or something. It appeared and attacked for no reason," Moon said matter of factly. "I need you to get down here and examine it."

_"On my way,"_ the voice from the compact said._ "Do you need more firepower?"_

"Not at the moment, but get Sun anyway just in case and join us near the shopping plaza in Juuban," Moon responded as she looked about the devastated street. "We need to know what we are dealing with."

_"Right. We'll be right there."_

As Sailor Moon placed her communications device back into its storage pocket, she couldn't help but wonder, _"Pluto would have seen this, if it wasn't for the Gates still being down. We haven't heard anything from her in the last few weeks. I wonder how the repairs are going?"_

Any further thoughts were cut off as extreme pain racked through her body.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

The sunlight danced and reflected off the waters of the lake as the mountains imposingly looked as if standing guard. Beside the lake, there stood a three story house with a drama unfolding inside.

The room was dimly lit by the knocked over lamp. In the room, two figures moved about in the half light. The taller man stood in the center of the wreak of the room, while the smaller woman stood by the window with her back to him.

Kaji moved over and stood behind Misato who was standing by the window, looking out it. Kaji reached up with his hand, contemplating whether or not to touch the angry young woman - the woman he truly loved.

"Why?" came her thinly stated question as she continued to look into the night.

Kaji sighed. "I'm sorry," he answered softly. "I wish it hadn't happened, but it did."

Misato spun around suddenly, facing him. Her eyes were afire with anger. "You said that you loved me! That there was no other!"

Kaji backed away from her as the woman's seething anger boiled to the surface.

"I come home early," she spat out. "To surprise you for our anniversary. And what do I find? You sleeping in OUR bed with that slut Asuka!"

Kaji hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry." he repeated pitifully. "I can't change the past. I'll... I'll do anything to make it up to you. To prove myself to you."

Kaji raised his head only to met the hard, cold eyes of his wife.

"Very well," she said coldly. "If you are serious about proving yourself and making it up to me, then you'll have to kill-"

The scene of the fighting couple was replaced by man wearing a tailored, gray suit and thin black tie. In his hands he had a shelf of papers that he was gripping tightly.

"We interrupt this program to bring you this important news event," the serious announcer said clearly. "Here is Shinji Ikari with this breaking news."

"Dammit!" Ryoko complained loudly to the image on the TV. "It was just getting good too!"

"Shhh!" Washu said. She was also annoyed that their soap opera had been interrupted. "This might be important."

"Thank you," the neatly dressed reporter said. "Today, not fifteen minutes ago, a large robotic thing attacked the Juuban Shopping district. The Senshi-"

Washu eyes widened as she devoted her full attention to the broadcast.

"- defeated the mechanized monster. Here is live footage from the scene of the disaster -"

Washu tuned out the newscaster as the screen changed to one of carnage. The rubble of what was a multi story shopping center filled the screen. Rescuers were digging through the pile of broken glass and concrete looking for survivors. Every now and then the camera would shift to get close ups of stretcher bearers carrying someone from the ruins. The camera shifted again to a three girls standing amid the wreckage of something, not much was able to be seen since the distance was too great for a clear shot.

But Washu recognized the rainbow effect that distorted the faces and heads.

"We have been informed that this station has obtained exclusive footage of the Senshi battling what appears to be a robot of some sort."

The scene of the wrecked building was replaced with a slightly jerky shot of two of the Senshi dodging as explosions erupted around them. The screen jerked sharply before settling smoothy as a large, bulky robotic man-like thing quickly stalked the short-skirted girls. The thing stopped and aimed a shoulder mounted gun at the pair.

Suddenly the fork-like gun exploded, staggering the robot-like thing. The camera managed to capture one of the Senshi as she caught a glowing object in her hand. Another short-skirted Senshi dashed into the scene. In that instant when the robot-like thing regained its balance, Washu eyes narrowed as she studied the image.

"That looks familiar," Washu thought aloud. "Where have I seen..." Washu eyes widened as the camera got another good shot of the seal on the chest of the battle mech.

_"It can't be!" _Washu's thought. _"It can't be!"_

The crest on the mech's chest left no doubt to Washu of its origin: Jurian Special Forces.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Ranma and Tenchi came up for air from their latest kiss. What started out as a few, light tentative touchings of lips had turned into a passionate, lip mashing, tongue wresting free for all. They embraced each other, clumsily at first as only first time lovers could, and held on to each other closely. Ranma bathed in the sensation of her body pressing up against Tenchi's. As they held each other with Ranma's head resting against Tenchi's chest, he reached up and stroked her long, red mane.

To Ranma, it felt pretty damn good.

Ranma curled up against Tenchi as he continued to caress her hair. If felt so good that Ranma was almost purring.

She was warm, she was felt safe, and she was comfy.

Everything seemed perfect.

On Tenchi's part, he was very content being with and holding onto Ranma. Though he had no problem with Ranma, he knew that there was a dark cloud in this picture: How he was going to explain to the other girls in his life that he was now attached? Holding Ranma, he could imagine their reactions and he knew that he would have to handle and break the news to the girls carefully. Though Ranma was an extraordinarily skilled martial artist, she didn't have the power to stand up to Ayeka and Ryoko when they were angry.

But those thoughts were for later, just then he was busy.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Ami tried to call Ranma but got a busy signal. She considered using the Senshi communicator but discarded that.

_"She's only a few minutes away,"_ she thought._ "We have to hook up anyway - I'll dash over there and get her."_

As Ami headed for the door, she collapsed as a burning sensation painfully rushed through her body. She gasped out in pain and clutched her stomach as the pain reach a peak. So intense was the pain, Ami found it even impossible to scream. Just when she thought she was going to pass out, the pain subsided.

_"What was that?"_ she wondered as she slowly climbed to her feet. She checked herself out quickly and carefully. Ami discovered that she now felt fine and suffered no ill effects. Ami dashed from the room and headed to Ranma's dorm.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Jurian Special Forces battle suit?" Tsunami questioned. "Are you sure? They were decommissioned at least ten thousand years ago."

"Of course I'm sure," Washu snapped. "If I wasn't sure we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Tsunami remained silent as she waited for Washu to control her panic. Washu paced back in forth in front of her latest creation: A portable version of the communicator she used to contact Tsunami. The shadowy hologram of Tsunami followed Washu's pacing as she calmed.

"Sorry," Washu said softly. "We got to find out what's going on - the last thing we need is for something stupid to happen."

"How about the fleet stationed here?" Tsunami asked. "Did they have a hand in this?"

"I tried to raise them, but couldn't," Washu answered. "My scans showed that they are not in the system and I put in an inquiry with Jurian Fleet Command, but a reply from there will take at least three weeks."

Tsunami pondered the fleets involvement and shook her head. "I don't think they'd do anything like this - besides those suits have been deactivated for ten thousand years. Why would they have them? And why would they do this in the first place?"

Washu shook her head as she considered Tsunami's words.

"I'll check on the inventory and see who's appropriated one," Tsunami said. "In the meantime, don't panic and try to gather as much intelligence as you can."

"Could Zarkov be behind this?"

"I doubt it," Tsunami answered. "I have been keeping close tabs on him and as far as I've been able to determine, he and the Mistress haven't left the grounds of their estate for weeks."

Washu shook her head. "That may not mean much, we don't know anything about this Mistress or who or what she really is," Washu pointed out.

Tsunami nodded. "True, I'll redouble my efforts there, check on the battle suit inventories and get back to you."

"I'll check my sensors and see when the fleet moved out," Washu said. "They would have received or sent something if they had to move for some reason."

"We'll get together tomorrow and compare notes," Tsunami said.

Washu nodded as the image of Tsunami faded. Her shoulders stooped as she sagged. A chill seized her.

"I fear this is only the beginning," she whispered.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

"Hello?" Ranma sang into the receiver of the phone. "Yes, this is she. Oh, hi Uncle Yoshi."

Tenchi watched Ranma's happy disposition change as she concentrated on the phone. Her face betrayed her emotions as her smile slipped to a stunned look. Tenchi noticed that she began to tremble.

"No," Ranma said quietly with a sniffle. The way she said it, it was clear that it wasn't a response to a question, but a denial of something that was said. Ranma's face became a mask of pain.

"Are... are they sure?" Ranma asked painfully. She then sat on the edge of the bed and hunched over as if she were punched in the gut.

Tenchi was unsure of what to do as he watched Ranma's knees shake as she sat in a ball on edge of her bed. What alarmed him the most were the tears that were flowing freely down her cheeks. Not knowing what else to do, he sat down next to her and carefully placed an arm around her. She responded by leaning into him.

"I... I'll come... right home," Ranma said between sobs. "I'll... see you... soon."

With a shaking hand, Ranma placed the receiver onto its cradle. Tenchi decided that whatever happened just now had hurt Ranma terribly. Hoping to ease her pain, Tenchi embraced her more fully. Ranma's face was looking into her lap as soft sobs escaped and tears dropped from the point of her chin onto her clasped hands.

"Ranma?" Tenchi asked carefully and gently. "What's wrong. What happened?"

Ranma sobbed harder and leaned forward into Tenchi. Tenchi collected the crying girl into his arms and hugged her closely, trying to comfort her in her moment of need. He held her close with one hand and rubbed her back with the other. He remained silent as he slowly rocked the trembling Ranma. Tenchi was silent, feeling too awkward to say anything.

Ranma's crying renewed briefly before she quieted down.

Tenchi mentally grasped to what to do. Knowing he was useless unless he found out what was going on, he screwed up his courage and asked in a low whisper, "Ranma, what's wrong?"

Breaking from the welcoming arms of her lover, Ranma looked at him with trembling lips before answering.

"Granny's dead."

-o-o-o-o-o-o-  
-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Notes:

To those who pointed out that "Ranma reveal her curse the first time Tenchi asked her out", well yer right.

-Wahhh!-

My pre-reader, Ghost in the Machine, also noted this and the only answer I could give him was: I thought about it and decided that the relationship needed to move along with the story. I could cop out and say something like "Ranma remembered it wrong", but I won't. The truth is, I'll make adjustments in the first chapters when I rewrite them. I know that sounds like a weanie thing to do, but I didn't want the story to get bogged down handling that problem while I'm trying to get everything else in the story moving.

So call me a weanie, but that's what happened. When I originally wrote the 'one shot' I didn't think that it would grow into something this big. Though I tried my best, I couldn't make that part work without slowing the story down, and I wanted to get the plot moving with the intro of the villains.

On another note, I really had a hard time with this chapter. I suffered several bouts of writer's block that frustrated me to no end. The sad part is that I had it outlined and plotted, but when it can to fleshing it out - I stared at my keyboard and thought: "Cool! Letters! The alphabet. What do I do with 'em? Oh yeah! Words! - what do I do with words?"

You get the picture.

The writer's block was enough that I did a chapter and a half of my 'anti-writer's block' story before I finished this one. That bites.

I would like to and continue to thank those among you that took the time to leave a review. It keeps me honest.

Thanks for reading.


	30. University Part 11

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

- - - - - - - -  
- - - - - - - -

University Part 11

- - - - - - - -  
- - - - - - - -

Ami hurried across the open space that separated her and Ranma's dorms without breaking into a run. Her footfalls made crunching noises on the light coating of snow. During her quick walk, she reexamined herself, trying to discover the source of the pain she felt earlier, but nothing came of it.

Quickly hiking up the stairwell, she soon was on Ranma's floor and then in front of Ranma's door. Being in a hurry, for Sailor Moon said it was important, Ami knocked on the door impatiently. After a brief moment that seemed too long for her, the door swung open and was replaced by a pigtailed man.

"Yes?" the man asked.

"Is Ranma here?" Ami asked while trying to look around the man who blocked the doorway.

"Are you a friend of hers?" the man asked.

"Yes," Ami answered as politely as she could at that moment. "I need to speak with her. It's important."

The pigtailed man entered the hallway and partially closed the door behind him, blocking Ami from entering. "I'm sorry," he said. "I'm Tenchi - Ranma's boyfriend. If you're a friend of hers, you need to know that she just got word that her grandmother died."

Ami stared at Tenchi with uncertain eyes.

"She's packing a few things and heading home soon," Tenchi continued. "She's pretty upset right now. If you could help her get her things together, she would appreciate it."

Ami nodded and entered the dorm room. There she found Ranma throwing some clothes into a bag, stopping at each toss to fight back sobs as she did.

"Ranma," Ami ventured gently, her need to hurry put aside.

Ranma looked up and noticed Ami. "Hey Ami," she greeted with a suppressed sob. "I guess Tenchi told you."

Ami's heart went out to Ranma. Even though she was the most powerful of the Senshi, emotionally Ranma had always been fragile. "I'm sorry," Ami said softly.

Ranma threw some underwear into her bag, looked red eyed at Ami and sniffled. "S'okay," she replied sadly as she zipped her bag. "Just gotta go home and take care of some stuff."

Ranma exhaled haltingly as she stood there and studied the zipped up bag that rested on her bed. She looked as if she were contemplating it or looking for answers from the inanimate object.

"I'll take care of your classes for you," Tenchi said, making Ami jump slightly since she'd forgotten he was there. "I'll get any assignments and get them to you if you have to be gone for long."

Ranma nodded and lifted her bag from the bed. Tenchi took it from her as she was about to sling it on her shoulder and slung the strap over his own shoulder. Ranma didn't protest the help.

"Walk you to the station?" Tenchi asked softly. Ranma just nodded her response, not feeling like talking very much.

Ami followed them out of the dorm and soon excused herself. She had to get to the rest of the Senshi. Ami dashed to the back of the building, quickly found a nook between the back of the dorm, a tall evergreen bush and some maintenance equipment and transformed. She then took to the roofs.

The air rushed through her hair as Mercury dashed from one roof to the next. She had gotten used to tagging along with Sun as she moved through space and felt as if it were taking forever to get to Juuban. Not only that, it had been so long since she had roof hopped, she was out of practice and unsure of herself as she not-so-boldly leapt from one roof to the next. It took a few hops to get back into the swing of things and after almost falling due to a thin coating of ice, Ami took it more cautiously. After what seemed like hours, but was really only a handful of minutes, Mercury was on top of a store looking down at the scene.

With disbelief, she studied the disaster that the shopping district had become. The street and buildings were pockmarked with craters and great gaping holes. A broken water main spewed liquid high into the sky as icicles formed on nearby debris fueled by the misting geyser. Great clouds of dust hung like a fog over the entire scene. What drew Ami's attention the most was the huge pile of rubble that used to be a multistory shopping center. Surrounding the rubble were various rescue vehicles, people in orange vests, some with dogs sniffing through the concrete, poking into and around the pile, looking for survivors.

She also noted the covered stretchers being loaded onto the back of a truck and the covered bodies under blue tarps.

_"This is not good,"_ Mercury thought to herself as she resurveyed the scene.

The others were talking to a uniformed man as Japanese Defense Force soldiers moved about, cordoning off the area and assisting the civilian forces with the rescue of the survivors. The uniformed man looked vaguely familiar, but Mercury couldn't put a name to the face. She leapt from the rooftop and alighted on the ground, careful not to slip on any ice, next to Sailors Mars and Jupiter. Sailor Mars glared at the newly arrived Senshi. "What took you?" she asked sharply. "And where's Sun?"

Ami, who was not in the mood, cut to the point, "I had things that needed to be taken care of and Sun's not coming. I'll explain later."

Mars was obviously not satisfied, but remained silent.

"Mercury, we need you to do as a complete scan as you can of this," Moon said while motioning to a pile of twisted metal that looked roughly like a man. "We need to know what we are dealing with."

Mercury nodded as she summoned the Mercury computer and the display visor snapped into place. Mercury noted the uniformed man standing near Sailor Moon and tried to place him. Moon caught the look, even though it was invisible to the man due to the masking field, and made the introductions. "You remember General Takei, Mercury?" Moon asked. "He was the officer in charge of fighting the Protectors when they invaded."

Recognition dawned on Mercury. "Of course!" she exclaimed. "I knew I had met you somewhere before. It is good to see you again." Mercury finished with a polite bow.

"And you," General Takei said, returning the bow. "I wish it could have been under more pleasant circumstances."

Mercury nodded in understanding.

"Mercury," Moon said, drawing everybody's attention. "General Takei has been charged with assessing and determining what this is and what to do about it by the JDF. We have agreed to share any information between us, so I'll need you to supply a copy of your findings to the General."

Mercury raised an eyebrow, but didn't question the request. "I'll get right on it."

- - - - - - - -

Ranma sat silently next to Tenchi who, after a silent and quick debate, decided to come along and make sure Ranma got where she was going all right. Ranma was lost in her own inner turmoil of emotions and shock. Tenchi held her hand throughout the ride and watched as various emotions played over her face. Ranma's expressions changed from neutral, shock, anger and then grief that so screwed up her face in pain that it looked as if she were going to burst into tears again. After a particularly painful look, Tenchi shifted so he had his arm around Ranma's shoulder - public displays of affection be damned - to comfort her. Ranma was hurting and he wanted to make it stop.

After what seemed like a long quiet, Ranma turned to Tenchi. "She can't be dead, she can't be," Ranma told Tenchi. "She was fine the last I talked with her. She can't be dead."

"I'm... I'm sorry Ranma," Tenchi said softly as he squeezed her hand gently. "I don't know what to say."

Ranma shook her head slowly and leaned into Tenchi, lost in her thoughts again. "She can't be dead," she whispered and fell silent once more. Tenchi watched the top of Ranma's red head as she leaned into his comforting embrace. He felt her tense up and relax, obviously reflecting the emotional cycling that she was experiencing. Ranma's tensing up sometimes got uncomfortable for Tenchi when Ranma leaned too hard into him, but he grimaced and bore it, knowing that Ranma was hurting worse than he was.

"I should have been there," Ranma said with anger surprisingly lacing her voice. "I should have been there for her like she was for me."

Tenchi patted her back and rubbed it gently as they sat together. They ignored any disapproving looks that other passengers gave them, but they still made Ranma aware of how tightly she was hanging on to Tenchi and she sat up and away from him a bit. "I'm sorry," she said. "It's just that... I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Tenchi said soothingly while drawing Ranma back to him. "I remember when my mother died. I was little and don't remember anything really, but the feelings. I'll be here for you if you need me."

Ranma looked at the taller Tenchi with a sad smile on her face. Her lower lip trembled as if she were going to burst into tears again, but didn't. "Thanks," she said. "I appreciate it."

She then leaned back into him.

- - - - - - - -

"Before I start, what happened?" Ami asked.

"This thing," Sailor Jupiter answered while motioning with her hand to several lumps of metal. "Landed over there and destroyed that department store." Mercury looked at the sites that were indicated by Jupiter. "Then Mars showed up and we took it down."

Mercury nodded for Jupiter to continue.

"It just started blasting everything - for no reason," Jupiter said with an exasperated tone. She breathed a few heavy breaths, rubbed her forehead with her hand and continued in a voice thick with emotion. "They're still pulling bodies out of the rubble. I don't know how many died."

Mercury had her computer out and began scanning the wreckage of the machine that caused so much destruction and death. She moved here and there, looking at the heads up display before her eyes. She moved to a large chunk of the machine that was somewhat intact.

As she scanned she was able to see the intricacies, the exotic materials used in its construction and something else... a trace of... something organic?

"I'm getting something weird here," she announced, "but it is residual."

"What is it?" Jupiter asked.

"It's... organic," Mercury said.

"You mean there was something alive in there?" Mars asked.

"Most likely," Ami said with a nod.

"Is it safe to open?" General Takei asked. "I feel we should investigate what's inside."

Mercury scanned the wreak again before nodding. "I don't detect any booby traps, but watch the liquid that's leaking here," she pointed out the puddle underneath the power suit, "it's poisonous."

General Takei nodded and motioned for some men armed with blowtorches forward. After giving them Mercury's warning on the liquid, he stepped away to allow the men to work. "Open it up," he ordered.

While the men were working on torching open the mass of metal, Mercury took the time to examine her surroundings carefully. It wasn't pretty and the smell wasn't either. The smell was that of rotting, wet rags and burnt asphalt, a very nasty combination that made Mercury feel slightly ill.

The air still had the fog of dust and smoke from the collapsed building. The streets and surrounding buildings were pocked marked with holes ranging in size from that of a fist to a yard in diameter. Except where water rained down from the broken water lines, the entire block seemed covered in a powdery ash from the settling dust.

"It's open, sir." The sound of the man's voice drew Mercury's attention back to the matter at hand. She turned in time to see the two men with the welding equipment quickly withdraw from the armored suit.

The other scouts geared up for anything. Moon had her tiara charged and in her hand as Mars had a Fire Snipe ready just in case. Jupiter was ready to pounce on whatever threat might come crawling out of the wreckage. None came. Mercury had her computer out and began taking new readings.

"Jupiter," Moon said with a nod.

Jupiter took point as Moon and Mars flanked her sides, wary of any attack. Mercury brought up the rear, taking readings all the way. "It's safe," Mercury declared. "The bio-reading is residual. Whatever is in there is dead."

The other Senshi relaxed their guard only slightly. Jupiter toed the panel that had been freed by the torches. "Ready?" she asked of the others. The replies were tense nods. Jupiter kicked off the heavy armored door, revealing the innards. The three other Senshi crowded around to peer inside. What they found surprised them.

"What the hell does this mean?" Mars asked of no one in particular.

Moon shook her head and spoke barely above a whisper, "I don't know."

- - - - - - - -

Tenchi walked beside Ranma, closely, as he carried her bag over one shoulder. She hadn't been too responsive to anything around her and occasionally squeezed his hand. It would have been such a lovely day if it weren't for the reason for the visit to Ranma's home.

"Tenchi?" Ranma ventured quietly. "Can you do me a favor?"

Tenchi looked down upon the women walking beside him. "Anything."

Ranma forced a smile - a small one, but a smile none-the-less. "Could you... tell my boss... where I work..." Ranma voice trailed off then.

Tenchi smiled back at her. "Sure," he said, understanding where Ranma was coming from. "I'll tell them what happened," Tenchi said, then felt the need to remind her of what he said earlier. "I'll get whatever assignments for your classes that come up this week while you're gone."

Ranma's forced smile waned as she nodded. All too soon they were outside the Yoshi Cafe America. It looked the same as the first time Ranma had laid eyes on it. The only difference was the 'Closed' sign that was unusual for the time of day. Ranma tried the door, jiggling the knob and found it locked. Digging through her purse, she quickly retrieved her keys and slid the correct one into the keyhole. Just as the keys jangled against the tumblers, the door opened from the inside.

It was Uncle Yoshi.

"Un- uncle," Ranma squeaked out.

The man's shoulders sagged. "Come in," he beckoned. "We're waiting for your sister to arrive."

Tenchi was about to excuse himself when Yoshi motioned him inside. Feeling it would be impolite to decline, Tenchi entered. The dining area was lit only by the light that streamed in from the windows. He watched Ranma as she took a chair across from a round faced woman with greying hair. The women took Ranma's shaking hands into hers.

"What happened?" Ranma voice asked, sounding small and hopeless.

The women rested her hands over Ranma's and gave them a gentle squeeze. "Ranma," she said gently, "Akiko died of a heart attack."

Ranma blinked at the women as Ranma's Uncle Yoshi moved toward the kitchen to make a phone call. "Hea-Heart attack?" Ranma questioned. "No, that can't be," she insisted with a shake of her head. "She was fine when I saw her. She was-"

"Ranma," the woman said firmly. "I know this is hard to take, but the doctors said that..." her voice trailed off as she saw that Ranma had stopped listening and was looking down, weeping. "Ranma..." she said gently.

Tenchi felt a bit out of place standing by the front door. On one hand, he felt that he was intruding on a very private moment and didn't belong there. On the other, he was invited inside and should stay with Ranma until she got herself together. Unsure as to exactly what to do, since Ranma's family was present, he decided that Ranma's needs were more important than the discomfort he was feeling and decided to approach Ranma. With that decision firmly in mind, he placed Ranma's bag on the floor and came up behind the seated redhead. He knelt down and wrapped his arms around her. Ranma buried her face in his shoulder and cried for all she was worth.

- - - - - - - -

Hunched over the battered remains of a control console and strapped into a form fitting seat, was the body of a young man. He wore a uniform of some sort, decked out in blue with darker blue trim and black gloves and boots. He was young and had reddish-blond hair and an almost peaceful look on his face. He was quite dead.

"What does this mean?" Mars asked again. "I was expecting a Protector or something like that. I wasn't expecting a guy."

Moon shook her head. "I don't know what this means, but we're going to find out. Mercury, gather as much information as you can. Don't forget to include a copy for General Takei."

Mercury nodded as Moon continued, "Mars, Jupiter gather as many pieces of this..." she motioned with her hand at the remains of the armored suit, "... thing that you can find. We need to know what makes it tick, where it came from and how it got here."

Silence fell among the four Scouts as the noise of the nearby digging penetrated their senses. Moon looked up at the remains of the building and the men working on removing the survivors. "Maybe we should concentrate on more immediate matters first," she said. The other Scouts agreed with a nod.

-------

"I'd like to thank you for helping Ranma the way you did," Ranma's uncle, Yoshi, said as he walked Tenchi back toward the bus stop. "It means a lot to us."

"You're welcome," Tenchi replied as he walked beside Ranma's uncle. "She was really... hurting. I had to do something."

The man nodded. "Ranma was adopted into the clan about two years ago. As I understand it, her life before coming to us wasn't very easy."

Tenchi gave a sidelong glance at the man, wondering what and where the conversation was going. "I knew she was adopted," Tenchi commented. "I got that idea from what she has told me. She doesn't like talking about her past too much - and I don't blame her."

Yoshi nodded in understanding. "Just be there for her," he said. "Ranma was very attached to my mother. I think this affects her more than anyone."

Tenchi remained silent for a moment. "I kinda got that impression. She did speak very highly of her grandmother."

Yoshi nodded. "For Ranma, Akiko and Michiko were the first real family she ever had in her life."

The two continued on in companionable silence to the stop.

- - - - - - - -

The Juraian Fleet Command was a huge building that took up several square miles of Jurai with its massive domed structure. Though many functions of the fleet were delegated down to subcommands that were scattered all over the Empire, here many of the most critical decisions were made. Dotted over the surface of the massive, weather-stained dome are aerials, antennas, and satellite dishes that point upward at various angles toward the stars. Many of the relics didn't work anymore, for they had been replaced by newer and more efficient means of communication. But the projections remained as reminders of when times were more primitive. The whole effect these outcroppings gave the surface of the building was that of a high-tech cemetery.

This was the heart of fleet operations.

In the large and dimly lit heart of the building, a large circular table, like a ring, dominated the room as the Fleet Admirals sat in their chairs. Each being in the room was focused on the center of the room, where a holographic projection replayed the destruction of the fleet stationed near the Royal family in the Sol system for all to see. The replay ended with a shot of the bridge of the command ship as the strangely dressed enemy destroyed the ship. At that point, the image faded into nothing.

The men, women and other beings that weren't human, that made up the Admirals and their staffs, sat in quiet contemplation as the hologram faded and the room lights came up.

"How was the enemy able to destroy the fleet?" one of the many important people in the crowd asked.

"Unknown," one of the staffers answered. "Analysis has not been completed yet and we're hindered by a lack of data."

"What do we know?" another Admiral asked.

"Not much, basically just what we see at this point," the man dressed in a white outfit answered. "The recordings from the sensors of every ship in the fleet registered massive amounts of power coming from this... being. So far, the computers and scientists haven't even been able to identify what kind of power. We're still working on it."

"Where did this thing come from?"

"After the destruction of the fleet, one of our monitoring probes that was stationed within the Sol system itself, detected the flight path of this... person," other man in white said. "The projected destination was the third planet. The same planet that the Royal family is residing on."

On those words, the room broke out into various conversations, side conversations and speculation. The droning of the Admirals, their advisors and the scientists present rose as each group tried to speak over the other.

"Order. Order!" came the overpowering and commanding voice of the Grand Admiral. The room quickly fell silent. After the Grand Admiral was satisfied that order had been restored, he addressed the scientist that had spoken. "Are you telling us that this thing headed for the third planet?"

"Yes sir."

"But that just tells us were it went, but not where it came from. Correct?"

"That is correct, sir."

The Grand Admiral rubbed his forehead while he thought. After running his fingers through his thinning hair, he announced, "We can cannot risk the lives of the Royal family. We must retrieve them from potentially hostile territory before we can deal with this menace."

"I can agree with that," another uniformed Admiral said.

"Has the Emperor been informed of this?" another questioned.

"Not any of the details yet," the Grand Admiral answered. "I wanted to present our findings and our recommendations in one meeting. If we are going to act, it must be quickly and decisively."

"I think we should get a small strike team together and do a 'hit and run' operation," one of the Admirals suggested. "Let's get in there, get the Royal family and get out as quickly as possible."

"I disagree," another Admiral said. "We must get the Royal family to safety, but I recommend that we also use this to demonstrate the power of the Juraian Fleet by sending the third, fifth and sixth fleets to do so."

"You do realize that would mean committing over three thousand ships to this operation," the Grand Admiral pointed out.

"Yes," the Admiral that had spoken said. "But if the threat did originate from this planet, a show of force would prevent any more hostile actions."

"Or it might provoke one," another Admiral from across the table pointed out rather harshly.

"True," still another uniformed man agreed.

"A fleet that size would be easily detected," yet another Admiral pointed out. "We need to get the Royal family out first."

The Grand Admiral mulled over his Admirals' suggestions. After a moment of silence in which he pondered the best course of action, he spoke. "I'll recommend to the Emperor that we send a small strike team in first to recover the Royal family," he finally said. "I am also going to recommend that this strike team be backed by a fleet. That way if there is any trouble, we'll be prepared." He looked around the circular table at each of his subordinates."Any more suggestions?"

He was greeted by several shakes of the head.

"Very well," the Grand Admiral said. "I want everyone to start setting things into motion. If the Emperor gives us the okay, I want to be already rolling."

- - - - - - - -

"Will we make it in time?" an eager voice asked over the roar of the engine.

"Maybe," came the terse reply.

On the streets of Tokyo, in Minato, near Iigura Elementary School, a low, sleek sports car weaved around the sparse traffic that populated Sakurada Avenue as it sped to its destination. The driver was slightly hunched over the steering wheel as she pulled the car from one side of the street to the other, causing her strapped in passenger to shift from one side of her seat to the other within the confines of her seat-belt.

"I knew we should have left earlier," the driver complained as she dodged around another moving obstruction. "We might be late for curtain."

The passenger, who was strapped in and hanging on for dear life, pouted a bit before smirking. "You didn't seem to mind the reason for our tardiness."

The driver flushed slightly, then returned her full concentration to the road. "Well..."

Haruka didn't get to finish as a heavy metal robot-like thing fell from the sky to smash into the middle of the street directly in her path. Haruka pulled the wheel hard causing the car to fishtail around the unexpected obstacle and skid sideways down the street. She worked the wheel one way, then the other, in an effort to straighten the car out. After one and a half three sixties, the car came to a stop in the middle of the street, pointed in the wrong direction.

"What the hell?" Michiru said, as she looked at the thing in the middle of the road. "That looks like one of those things that Moon and the others fought."

"Let's get somewhere and change," Haruka said as she reengaged the gears and tore down a side street before quickly guiding the car into an alley. "If we hurry, we can take it down before it kills anybody."

Michiru nodded as they got out of the car, looked around and transformed into their Senshi forms. The two arrived back at the scene just as the armored suit moved its shoulder gun into position and began powering up. Making a quick visual scan, both were relieved to find that most of the people had hightailed it out of the area. With a quick glance at one another, both positioned themselves to go on the offensive.

"World Shaking!" Sailor Uranus cried as she unleashed her attack. The ball of concentrated energy traveled along the ground, tearing a furrow in the pavement as it did. As it neared its target, the ringed ball of energy became airborne and slammed into the side of the armored suit, causing it to stagger like a drunk. Part of the arm was shredded and the entire side was left smoking.

Sailor Uranus had gotten better thanks to time and training from the newest Senshi. Her attack recharge time had been more than halved and she prepared another 'World Shaking' for the staggering armored suit.

The attack was very well planned out. Coordinated attacks were so much better than individual efforts.

The aqua blue ringed ball of Neptune's 'Deep Submerge' tore at the opposite side of the armored suit that Uranus had hit, causing the arm below the elbow to be blown completely off along with bits and pieces of the chest area. By that time, another 'World Shaking' connected with the armored suit, blowing the heavy suit off its feet and flat onto the pavement. There it sparked a few times from rents in the thick armor before falling silent, smoke pouring out of gaping holes that now covered its body.

Sailor Neptune approached Sailor Uranus, together they surveyed their handiwork. Both jumped into a ready stance as the metal monster's foot twitched once with a sizzling sound before going still. After a few heartbeats, both Senshi relaxed somewhat.

"This is almost like two years ago," Neptune said.

Uranus replied only with a nod.

- - - - - - - -

"What did you find out?" a worried Washu asked Tsunami as soon as her image appeared in the hologram.

"Nothing," Tsunami answered. "All the power suits are accounted for. Whatever attacked, didn't come from Jurai."

"That can't be!" Washu insisted. "There have been more attacks over the last week and I even managed to retrieve a sample of armor from one of the battles. They were small true, but enough to analyze. It was definitely what was used in our power suits back then. Why, we even use the same type armor today, in our military ships."

"You sure?" Tsunami questioned.

"Yes!" Washu insisted. "I can even show you the results."

"I'm not questioning your results," Tsunami said patiently. "I'm just reporting what I found. All the Juraian Special Forces power suits that were deactivated and mothballed are all present and accounted for. The seals on the storage bunkers were still intact and my sources had to break those to check the inventories."

Washu shook her head. "It was clearly a vintage Special Forces power suit."

"I understand," Tsunami said. "Is there any way for you to get a hold of something more substantial? Something with a serial or service number on it?"

Washu shook her head. "After the Senshi were through examining them, the military carted them off somewhere. I was always too late to find out where and none of the Earth communications have mentioned them so I wouldn't even know where to start looking." Washu paused to catch her breath before continuing. "But in spite of that, I did manage to track one down, but security is too tight for even me to crack."

Tsunami raised an eyebrow, a motion the Washu caught.

"The remains of the power suit is constantly surrounded by guards, technicians and scientists poking around it," Washu explained. "I may be able to sneak in after they're through examining it, but until they relax their guard, I can't get close."

"What about sending a small spying device to get the information to you?"

Washu nodded once before shaking her head. "I could do that. I've been so busy building and maintaining the hunter/killers for the devices that are spying on us, I didn't even think about it," Washu explained. "I've got several hundred hunter/killers patrolling my lab to be sure that we're not spied upon. Who ever is spying on us has gotten smarter too, because they're using hunter/killers against our hunter/killers."

"So you been waging a little war here by yourself?" Tsunami asked.

"More or less... Well, yes. You can say that," Washu answered.

Tsunami sighed. "How long to make some spies of your own?"

"About four or five days," Washu answered. "Then I'll have to deliver them near where the power suit is stored. With the other side's hunter/killers in the area, I doubt my little spies would be able to get out."

Tsunami nodded. "What are you doing in the meantime?"

"I have posted some devices in Tokyo in hopes of obtaining something the next time one pops up, also I'm trying to use screen shots from the news feeds to get the service numbers that way."

"Good," Tsunami nodded. "You may want to revisit the areas of the fights anyway. There may be something you overlooked that belonged to one of the suits for further analysis."

Washu nodded. She had already thought of doing that, but saw no need to mention it.

Silence fell between them as each mulled over their thoughts.

"Washu, I have some news... bad news," Tsunami said softly. "I don't know how you are going to take it."

Washu sighed. _"What else can go wrong?"_ she wondered as she motioned for Tsunami to continue.

"The fleet stationed here to evacuate the Royal family in case of emergencies has been destroyed," Tsunami said gravely.

Washu looked at her ghostly friend. "Destroyed? Why? By who?"

Tsunami shook her head. "We don't know why, but I think I know who." Tsunami then reached through the haze that marked the border between her world and Washu's. "Here," she said as a capsule oozed into existence. "A recording of made as the fleet was attacked. I'll let you analyze it and we'll compare notes."

"You think whoever set loose the power suits may have destroyed the fleet?" Washu asked as she picked up the capsule from the floor.

"I would rather you do your analysis free from any preconceived notions," Tsunami said in a very serious manner. "I want to know what you come up independently from me."

Washu blinked at the seriousness in Tsunami voice. "Okay," she conceded. "I'll call you as some as I find out anything."

- - - - - - - -

"What did you find out?" Moon asked Mercury at the weekly meeting of the Senshi. Everyone was there with the exception of Pluto, who was still at work at the Gates of Time, and Sun, who was at a funeral.

"Well for the most part," Mercury answered as she pulled the Mercury Computer out of stuff space and opened it. "The alloy used in the construction of the armored suits is made up of common elements found here except for several which are not native to Earth."

Mercury hit a few buttons on the keypad of the Mercury computer and a holographic image of what looked like an transparent, egg shaped structure made of multicolored points that were connected by lines. The points were grouped by their colors and overall, the effect was rainbow-ish.

"What's that?" questioned Mars.

"It's the 'Periodic Table of Elements' from the Moon computer," Mercury answered offhandedly. "The Moon scientists laid out the elements in relation to their evolutionary creation and how they're related to one another. The simple and basic elements that were created with the big bang are in the center, the more complex ones are toward the outside. The color represent Groups and Orders while the lines represent the Families that the elements were derived from."

"Okay, what does this have to do with this?" Venus asked, somewhat intrigued.

"Well, the elements found in the solar system are these," Mercury tapped a button and a series of elements were highlighted and flashing. "The ones found in the alloy of the power suit are these." She once again tapped a button and several more elements were highlighted and flashing slightly off from the others.

The group of girls stared at Mercury's presentation.

"Because of the amount of these exotic elements in the armor," Mercury continued, "it suggests that these armored suit came from another star system, one made up of elements alien to our solar system."

Moon, Jupiter, Mars and Neptune blink-blinked and stared at their short haired friend.

"Huh?" Jupiter asked for the group intelligently.

Mercury blinked back, cleared her throat and spoke.

"There are only so many elements that can be found naturally in the solar system because it was formed from the remnants of two supernovas colliding and coalescing," Mercury explained. "You see, more elements, especially the heavier ones, are created with every generation of star building. So elements that are common in older star systems, are rarer in younger ones."

The other girls in the room just stared back at Mercury, uncomprehending. Several moments ticked by.

"And what does that have to do with the armored suit?" Moon finally ventured.

"The power suits armor contains elements that cannot be found naturally in this solar system," Mercury said patiently as she tried to get her point across. "They contain heavier elements from other, older star remnants. Second generation stars wouldn't have some of the heavier elements of a third generation star, and a third generation star wouldn't have some of the elements of a forth..."

"And?" Jupiter asked, breaking the moment of silence that followed. She tried to grasp what Mercury said.

Mercury sighed and rubbed her head in thought. "The exotic elements that I found in the armored suits alloys can be manufactured here on Earth artificially, but they would be expensive, crude, unstable and highly radioactive compared to natural occurring elements."

"So what does that mean, and what are we dealing with?" Mars asked, wanting Mercury to get to the point.

"The amount of elements that are non-terrestrial," Mercury said carefully, hiding her frustration, "suggests that the armored suits were manufactured with materials from a forth or fifth generation star system."

"And we're a third...," Jupiter muttered, dimly grasping where Mercury was going.

Mercury nodded as silence fell among the group of girls.

"So, what you are trying to say," Moon summarized, "is that the armored suits that attacked for no reason came from outer space?"

Mercury shifted a bit in her seat, then nodded. "Well - yes... exactly."

Silence fell briefly before an exasperated Moon shook her head and said, "Why didn't you just say so in the first place?"

- - - - - - - -

The grounds of the small temple were clean and orderly. The torii gate that marked the entrance of the compound was made of stone unlike the red painted, wooden ones that lined the steps up to the shrine. The light wooden structures within the temple compound were topped by red tiled roofs with ornate trim. Ranma would have compared the temple to the Cherry Hill Shrine, or to the one Tenchi lived at if she were not so numb with grief.

The night before had been the wake. When it was over with, Ranma took turns with Yoshi's and Shoji's wives in staying up and watching over the remains of Akiko. Each took a three hour watch with Ranma's being in the middle of the night. She did most of her grieving then and felt emotionally drained by the time Shoji's wife relieved her.

Ranma was dressed in a formal black kimono as she knelt by her sister Michiko, who was dressed identically. Ranma was beside herself in grief and Michiko wasn't in any better shape. Both young women had clung to each other in their mourning and only now were able to function in a somewhat dazed state.

The day was beautiful. Rounded, white clouds drifted slowly through the blue sky. The limbs of the barren trees that filled the of the temple grounds' courtyard swayed gently in the cool, autumn breeze. Though the trees were without their foliage, they still processed a certain beauty all their own, like a sleeping child. Snow littered the ground and the branches of the trees.

Ranma felt betrayed by the day. She felt that the weather should have reflected the mood of the moment. Ranma felt that it should have been overcast, cloudy, rainy - something more suited for the occasion, not the sunny, partly cloudy, let's-spend-the-day-outdoors day it turned out to be.

In front of the temple altar was another smaller one built by the mortuary. Before that was the casket that held the worldly remains of a woman that Ranma had grown to know and love like a mother. Sitting upright, propped against the casket, was a wooded tablet that Akiko's posthumous name was inscribed on. This was to keep Akiko's spirit from coming back every time her name was mentioned.

Ranma sat and listened to the balding, orange robed priest read a sutra, but she was not really paying attention to what was being said. She looked blankly at the crowd of people who showed up to pay their last respects. Part way through the sutra, the priest called for the offering of incense. The first to make their offering was the very elderly Hiroji, Akiko's father. The offering moved down the family tree, with Ranma - being the most junior member of the clan, being last.

After Ranma took her turn, it was the visitors turn to make their offerings. Akiko was well known and liked in the neighborhood and many people came to pay their respects. All during the offerings the priest continued the sutra. Ranma sat by her sister and watched each guest kneel on the cushion before the urn, bow, then make an offering of incense before bowing again.

Ranma was too numb to really feel anything during the whole process. Though she felt numb, she did feel the tears as they tracked down her cheeks.

- - - - - - - -

_"What does this mean?" _Washu thought with a frown as she ran through the analysis for the third time knowing what the outcome would be.

_"This can't be, but how?"_ she thought frustratedly. She rested her elbow on the floating keyboard in front of her and rubbed her temples with her fingers. She hated headaches and she was looking at the biggest one she'd seen in quite some time.

She had painstakingly extracted and separated every wavelength and channel of the doomed fleet's recording and managed to generate a image of the waveform of the attacker. It was iron-tight proof that the Senshi were involved in the fleet's destruction. Each waveform was like a fingerprint or a sample of DNA - unique and individual to each person, or Senshi, in this case.

The conclusion was unmistakable. A conclusion that she had no doubt that Tsunami had also come to.

She sagged down further into her floating seat, feeling the weight of all the eons pressing down on her. Rubbing her temples with her forefingers and thumb, Washu wondered what to do. She sighed heavily and looked at the evidence before her.

Two screens that floated before her displayed two waveforms. One showed the waveform of Sailor Sun that she collected from the ancient files that she downloaded from the Moon computer earlier in the summer and later readings recorded during Ranma's visit to Tenchi. The other screen displayed the power waveform of the unknown assailant that attacked and destroyed the fleet.

They matched.

Perfectly.

- - - - - - - --

"What can we do?" Neptune asked the group of girls.

"Well," Mercury began, "I've started looking into the Moon Kingdom's defenses to see if there is anything like an early warning system. I figure there would have to be since they went through the trouble of creating Sailor Sun."

Mercury was greeted with several nods.

"After all this time, would there still be anything left around?" Mars asked incredulously.

"We are," Mercury pointed out. "By the way, I put the Moon Computer on level five security. No one but me and Sailor Moon can access it now."

Moon nodded in approval, then questioned, "How long will it take you to find out if anything is left of the early warning system?"

"About two days, maybe three," Mercury replied. "If there is anything still functioning, I'll get as much of it up and running as fast as I can." She paused for a breath before continuing. "In the interim," Mercury said, "I put out a crawler to see if there was anything here today that would help us."

"Crawler?" Mars queried as the others gave puzzled looks.

"Yes," Mercury began to explain. "A crawler is a program that the Moon computer uses to access and search for information that is stored on computers all around the world. I wasn't expecting anything, but I got a hit."

"What?" Moon asked, slightly surprised. "You mean that there is something here, now, that could help us?"

Mercury nodded as she brought up the relevant screen on her computer before continuing. "Yes. It seems that the Americans are working on something called 'Project Excalibur'. It's based on technology that was captured from the Nazis at the end of World War Two."

"World War Two!" Jupiter exclaimed. "The Nazis!"

Mercury continued. "But the technology didn't originate in Germany, it came from knowledge gleaned from archeological artifacts the Nazis gathered before the outbreak of the war. I haven't had time to fully research it yet, but it seems that the Germans were doing a lot of that before the war - looking for new sources of weapons."

"What are the American's using this - technology - for?" Uranus ventured.

"Well, Project Excalibur is part of a FTL project," Mercury explained. "There was a reference to 'Fruit of the Loom' - whatever that is - I suspect that it was some kind of in-joke, but I discovered that FTL stands for 'Faster Than Light'."

Silence hung at the end of that statement.

"Faster Than Light? Is that even possible?" Mars asked.

"Of course it is," Venus said sharply. "Remember the Starlights?"

Mars nodded. "I had forgotten about them," she admitted. "So Excalibur is a faster than light space ship?"

Mercury nodded. "Yes, and from what I was able to find out they're going to move through space the same way that Sailor Sun does: By folding space."

"I always wondered, how far can Sun travel by doing that?" Venus mused aloud.

Mercury shrugged her shoulders. "As far as I know, Sun can travel anywhere in the universe almost instantaneously. Her only limiting factor would be navigation."

Moon cleared her throat, drawing the attention of the other girls. "As nice as this all is, what does it have to do with our current situation?"

"Umm... yeah," Mercury said weakly. "Is seems that the Americans are using something in their project called 'Space Field Sensors' to monitor the fabric of space for abnormalities."

The circle of girls blink-blinked at the blue haired Senshi.

"Umm... what does that mean and how does that help us?" Uranus asked.

Mercury sighed. "It mean that the Americans can detect deep space/time disturbances - almost instantaneously. The way that do it is-"

Mercury was stopped by Moon's upheld hand. "Mercury, as enthusiastic as you are about this - how does that help us?"

Mercury blinked. "Sorry," she said meekly. "That means that I can tap in and monitor things using the American array. Think of it as radar for the fabric of space. It's cruder than the sensors that the Moon computer will have access to, but it's all we have until I get the Moon's deep space sensors up and running."

Moon nodded as the did the others. "Get a hold of Sun and tell her what's going on," Moon said to Mercury. "If this is an invasion from outer space, she'll be the only one that can deal with it."

Mercury nodded, then slowly shook her head. "True. In fact, Sun was made specifically for this type of combat. I'll try to get a hold of her, but Sun should be tied up with her grandmother's funeral right now. It'll probably be a few days before I can get a chance to talk to her."

"Would it be safe to use her?" Venus asked worriedly. "You know how powerful she is."

"She should be fine. It's not like she going to blow a planet up or anything," Mars interjected. "Besides, she was designed for this kind of stuff."

Jupiter nodded absently. "Yeah... and she does have better control over her powers than when she fought the Protector two years ago."

"That's true, but didn't she have to take the fight to outer space to do it though?" Venus reminded them.

"That still doesn't change the fact that Sun is the only Senshi among us that is equipped to handle this," Moon stated quite matter-of-factly. "As Mercury and Mars pointed out, Sun was designed and built for just such a thing."

Silence revisited the girls. Moon's choice of words were slightly disturbing to them. It was uncomfortable to be reminded that their origins were to serve as weapons.

"Jupiter, have you heard anything from Pluto since she left to repair the Gates?" Moon asked breaking the silence.

"I did contact her earlier today and she said she would be here after she was through trying to get some probable readings on the future," Jupiter said.

Moon nodded to that statement.

"What about the man, the pilot of the armored suit?" Mars asked. "Was he an alien?"

Mercury shook her head. "That's the weird part of this. The pilot of the armored suit was definitely human, but he had some odd genetic variables."

"What do you mean?" Usage asked.

"I mean than there were differences- small differences - to suggest that he was not too far removed from the gene pool here on Earth," Mercury answered.

The room descended into silence.

"So he was a close relation to people on Earth?" Uranus questioned.

Mercury nodded. "Yes, very close, but there more oddities too."

"Like?"

"The fact that the pilot had been dead for at least twenty four hours before the attack."

Further discussion was interrupted by Pluto wavering into existence.

"Pluto, how are the repairs going?" Moon quickly asked.

"Slowly," Pluto answered tiredly. "I was able to get some readings on the immediate future though."

The room fell silent as the girls waited for the other shoe to drop.

"There is a space fleet coming," Pluto announced. "Within the limited reference points that have been replaced, the fleet showed up in about five out of six futures."

"How many ships?" Moon asked worriedly.

"A lot," Pluto answered. "I'm not trying to be evasive about this, but the way the time-streams are, I cannot give you a accurate count. Thousands would be a safe guess."

"Thousands of ships...," Mercury whispered. "This is just the kind of thing... Oh No!"

The others in the room jumped at Mercury outburst.

"What's wrong?" Uranus asked Mercury, rubbing her ear since she was seated next to her.

"Mars, when you visited Sun, what did she say her grandmother died of?" Mercury asked.

Mars blinked at her fellow Senshi before answering. "A heart attack. Why?"

"It may be a coincidence, but it's just too convenient," Mercury said. "First-"

"Wait," Pluto interrupted, slightly shocked. "Sun's grandmother is dead? When did this happen?"

"Earlier this week," Mars answered. "She's at the funeral."

"Right," Mercury said, getting back into the conversation.

"What are you worried about?" Moon asked.

"Sailor Sun is the only Senshi designed to handle combat in space,right?" Mercury pointed out. "In fact, she was specially created to fight against invading space-fleets."

Silence fell among the girls as they digested that tidbit.

"Great," Moon said as she rubbed her forehead with her fingers. "Just great. We have an invading space-fleet that could show up any time and our best weapon against them is tied up with a funeral."

"You're thinking that Sun's grandmother was killed to tie her down?" Uranus asked, joining in on the speculation.

"I don't know," Mercury responded hesitantly while biting her lip. "But with all that's going on, we shouldn't rule out the possibility. The timing of her death is suspicious and killing Sun's grandmother would be a good way to keep her occupied and unfocused."

Moon and Pluto nodded in agreement as the others mulled that around in their heads.

"If it wasn't a coincidence, then we might be in bigger trouble than we thought," Uranus said.

"True," Mercury agreed while nodding.

"Why?" Mars asked, not getting the meaning behind Uranus' words.

"Because it would mean that whoever did this knows Sun's identity," Moon answered. "It also means they might know ours as well."

Silence revisited the girls once again. The disquieting thought that their friends and loved ones might be targets was alarming.

"It had to be a coincidence," Venus said with more than a little hope in her voice. "After all, no one else has an unexpected death in the family - and it was a heart attack."

"Or who ever they are, doesn't consider us enough of a threat to warrant any action against," Mercury pointed out.

Everyone pondered that.

"I need one of you," Moon said suddenly and seriously to Mercury and Mars, "to get a hold of Sun. Today. Fill her in what's going on, and tell her to stand by."

"What about our suspicions about her grandmother's death?"

"We'll keep that to ourselves for now. We have no real proof and telling her what we suspect would do more harm than good," Moon answered. "Pluto, can you try to use the Gates to prove one way or another if this was an enemy action or not?"

"I can try," Pluto said. "It'll take me a few days, relative, to do it."

Moon nodded. "Do your best."

"Wait a minute," Neptune interjected. "If killing Sun's grandmother was something to tie her up, then wouldn't they be attacking now?"

Moon thought on that while looking at each of the Scouts present. She sighed. "Sun is the most powerful Senshi among us, probably the most powerful being ever. But in spite of how powerful she is, she has always been... emotionally fragile compared to the rest of us."

The other girls looked at one another.

"I don't know," Mars said. "I think killing Sun's grandmother would, like, piss her off? Make her go for vengeance?"

Moon nodded in agreement with that though. "True," she said. "But they may be completely unaware or have underestimated how powerful Sun truly is and acted."

Silence fell among the group for a heartbeat.

"This whole thing isn't making sense," Neptune interjected, adding in her two cents. "First someone spies, that is tracks Sun... wait... how would they know who Sun's grandmother is when she spends most of her time on campus? You'd think they go for her boyfriend instead." She paused, shook her head, and continued. "The reference points for the Gates get destroyed and then someone goes through our files on the Moon computer, and then drops robot things here and there that go on rampages with dead guys in them. At about the same time Sun's grandmother dies..."

The various girls nodded at Neptune's summarization.

Neptune shook her head again. "Nothing's really adding up... and now a big space fleet is heading our way."

"There is a lot of what's going on that doesn't make sense," Moon said. "But when you're dealing with invaders from outer space, they may have a different value system. To them, what they are doing probably makes perfect sense, even if we can't understand it."

Silence fell among the girls.

"Mercury," Moon drawing the attention of everyone. "That early warning system you are working on?"

"Yes?"

"Hurry up and get it running."

- - - - - - - -

Ranma, along with the other members of the family, watched as they unloaded the casket at the crematorium. The casket was placed in a shallow pan that was affixed to a sturdy roller-topped table. Then is was rolled up to the door to the crematorium oven. The door was then opened and the casket, tray and all, was slid into the retort. The neatly dressed attendant presented the key to the portal to Akiko's son Yoshi with a deep bow.

"Please return in three hours," the attendant said politely while holding his bow. "All should be ready then."

Yoshi returned the bow. "Thank you for your kind services," he said. "We will return in three hours."

- - - - - - - -

"What did you find out?" Tsunami asked.

"The same thing you did, that the fleet was destroyed by Sailor Sun," Washu said quietly.

Tsunami sighed and her shoulders drooped. After a few heartbeats, she looked at Washu and asked, "I thought you were tracking her? What happened?"

Washu shook her head. "I don't know," she confessed. "I do know that at the moment of the attack, Ranma was in bed - I'm assuming she was asleep."

"Where is she now?" Tsunami asked.

Washu sighed and shook her head. "I don't know," she admitted. "The space/time tracker's frequency has been altered. Why, I don't know and I can't seem to get a lock on it."

"So she could be anywhere right now?"

"Yes," Washu said, "but that doesn't change anything. She was in her dorm room during the attack - there is no doubt about that."

"Are you sure?" Tsunami questioned seriously. "She does have the ability to curve time if she wants."

"I'm sure," Washu said with equal seriousness. "I checked and double checked: There were none of her space/time anomalies at the time of the fleet destruction."

Tsunami shook her head. "That doesn't mean anything," she explained. "Sailor Sun can even escape the detection of the Gates of Time, you not finding any anomalies means nothing."

Silence fell between the two women.

"Could the Mistress be involved in this somehow?" Washu asked Tsunami. "She seems to be stirring up trouble back home."

"I thought of that," Tsunami admitted. "But she was spotted by one of my probes ten minutes after the fleet was destroyed according to my records."

"So unless she can travel half a galaxy in less than ten minutes..."

"She couldn't have been involved," Tsunami finished Washu statement.

"So - what does this mean?" Washu asked.

Tsunami shook her head. "I don't know what it really means, but I do know one thing." Washu watched Tsunami let out a sigh. "It means," Tsunami continued tiredly, "that Jurai is sending several Grand Fleets here - and each is armed to the teeth."

The quiet that descended was deafening.

Washu sighed heavily. "Preparing for war?"

Tsunami nodded in response.

- - - - - - - -

Ranma and the rest of the family returned to the crematorium later in the afternoon. Yoshi led the procession since Hiroji, Akiko's father, couldn't make it for health reasons. He handed the attendant the key, then the group followed the attendant to the oven's portal. Inserting the key into the lock, the oven door was unsealed and the tray was retracted onto the table. Ranma found herself holding the urn as the rest of the family paired off and, with the help of the attendant, started picking the remaining bones from the ashes with chopsticks.

Holding out the urn, Ranma concentrated on capturing every piece that the others were placing into it. Ranma dutifully made sure no piece was lost as each bit was carried by two sets of chopsticks from two family members seated on each side of the long tray. As with custom, this was the only time when two people were allowed to hold the same thing with chopsticks.

It seemed to take forever.

Finally the task was completed, Ranma was relieved of her burden and the urn was taken from her and wrapped in a white cloth. Yoshi bowed to the crematorium attendant and took the urn containing the bones of his mother and led the family members out of the building and into the brightness of the cold winter's afternoon.

- - - - - - - --

"Let's see," Mercury said. "There have been three other attacks since the first one. The JDF stopped two and Uranus and Neptune took care of one."

"How did the JDF stop the other two attacks?" Mars asked.

"They used high velocity armor piercing rounds with depleted uranium cores," Mercury answered offhandedly.

The other Scouts looked at Mercury. Mercury blinked back in return. "That is, according to General Takei," she continued. "That is a secret, by-the-way. They apparently had to get them from the Americans."

The other nodded, understanding Japan's sensitivity to anything remotely atomic in relation to weapons.

"The thing that is confusing me, is why?" Jupiter asked. "I mean, these things just drop out of the sky and cause death and destruction and nothing more."

"They might be testing our defenses," Neptune suggested. "Remember the Protectors a few years back? This could be the same thing."

Uranus nodded in agreement. "Yes, that's what we thought when we fought that one earlier this week."

"But why have dead men in their power suits?" Jupiter interjected. "That makes the least amount of sense to me."

Mercury pondered this as did everyone else.

"Maybe to mislead us," Moon suggested. "Maybe the people who are doing this are not human at all and they want us to think they are."

Everyone considered that as silence filled the room.

Mercury shook her head. "We're just guessing," she said. "We really have no idea about the motives behind these attacks."

Moon nodded. "Between this, the Moon computer being compromised, Sun being tracked and her grandmother dying...," Moon's voice faded as the others were lost in their own thoughts.

Mars sighed. "Why here?" she asked wearily. "I mean of all the places in the world, why here. Why not Korea or China or South America?"

"Beachhead theory," Mercury answered immediately. The others blink-blinked at her.

"Beachhead theory? What's that?" Neptune asked.

"Well, it's a theory put forth by Professor Forbin of University of Texas, Eldorado in the United States, that if the Earth was ever invaded from space, the invaders would set up a beachhead that was near major populations and natural resources but geographically isolated."

Silence fell among the group.

"That means the invaders would most likely look for an area that is geographically isolated from the rest of the world but near enough to major continents with exploitable natural resources."

"Okay," Mars said with a drawl. "What does that have to do with Japan?"

"Geographically isolated... like an island," Moon said, catching on to what Mercury was saying. "But Japan is resource poor compared to other areas of the world."

"True, but Japan has location going for it," Mercury said. "There are surprisingly few places on the Earth that fit the bill." She pulled out the Mercury computer from stuff space and opened it. "Among the list of candidates for beachheads are Japan, Sumatra, Burneo, Cuba, England, and Madagascar."

The rest of the Senshi were silent, waiting for Mercury to continue.

"For various reasons most on the list are unsuitable for a beachhead, England for example. Though it is part of, and isolated from the European continent, the continent itself has a large population but really lacks a good number of natural resources. Madagascar is near a continent with large amounts of natural resources, but not many people."

"Would you want that though?" Neptune piped up. "It seems that it would make it easier to get to the resources without opposition."

Mercury sighed. "No," she said. "You see, a decent size population is a resource. You wouldn't go through the expense of moving a workforce through space, you'd use what is available locally to mine the natural resources for you."

"Slaves," Mars said quietly.

Silence revisited the girls as each contemplated that.

"But why go through all the trouble of invading? Surely there are easier ways of getting what you want than going through the expense of coming here to take it," Neptune asked. "And wouldn't setting up a beachhead make them more venerable to attack?"

"Depends on the level of technology that they have," Mercury pointed out. " A beachhead can be easy to secure when you have the high ground, and orbital battleships would definitely count as the high ground."

That brought everyone's mind back to the immense space fleet that Pluto said was coming.

"When the objective is to subdue, not destroy, most of the population, you would need someplace to use as a base of operations for military purposes," Mercury continued, "and later for administering the planet after the take over."

"What about asteroids or other uninhabited planets?" Venus asked. "Why wouldn't they use those first?"

"Cost," Mercury answered. "You would have to use robots, which would be expensive or space-suited personal, which would even be more expensive. Conquering a planet like ours would offer them a ready made work force and natural resources to tap into - relatively cheaply."

"Then why hasn't anything been reported in Cuba?" Mars asked.

"Because China has plenty of people and natural resources to exploit and Japan is right at its back door," Moon answered for Mercury.

Silence fell once again among the group.

"This is so not good," Venus commented.

"You have a gift for understatement," Mars said dryly.

- - - - - - - -

The graveyard looked like a miniature city with the many tombstones standing at various heights like buildings. A city populated by the dead.

The priest unsealed the side of the short blockish tombstone that was before the taller, slender one that bore the family name. The urn was placed reverently inside and the priest resealed the tombstone. The graveside services were mercifully short. Ranma knew it wasn't over with because, as per family custom, the grave would be visited by family members on scheduled days. The third, fifth, seventh, thirteenth and twenty-first days being the important days up until the forty-ninth day. After that, Akiko's memory would be commemorated on the yearly Obon, which was considered mid July by the Yonai's, when the spirits visit their relatives.

- - - - - - - -

Somewhere, far away.

"Are the fleets assembled in their assigned coordinates?"

"Almost sir," a blue uniformed man said as he studied a readout from a transparent screen. "The Forth Grand Fleet will be at their assigned coordinates in four days."

"What is the status of the strike team?"

"They've just finished reconnaissance and gathering intelligence and are laying down plans to extract the Royal family. They report they will be ready by the time Forth Fleet gets into position."

"Good," the Admiral answered with a nod. They didn't begin this little war, but they were equipped and determined to end it.

The Admiral rose from his command chair and strode over to one of the many large screens on the bridge that displayed the strength of the fleet. _"Yes sir," _he thought to himself proudly as he looked over the thousands of ships at his command. _"If that person - that thing - shows up again, it won't be facing a mere twenty ships... and we'll have more than enough firepower to take care of it."_

- - - - - - - -

Ranma returned to the restaurant that had been her home with Michiko. The two girls were accompanied by their Aunt Komachi who agreed to watch over the two still grieving girls. Ranma and Michiko supported each other as they climbed the stairs to their shared room. There, each girl collapsed onto their futons and Ranma, exhausted emotionally, fell asleep.

- - - - - - - -

Moon shook her head slowly. "There is no doubt then, is there? Everything... the attacks, the spying and now the space fleet coming... all of what we discussed points to one thing..."

The others looked at their leader, concern and worry etched on their faces. Sailor Moon looked at each of them, measuring what their reactions would be to her next statement.

"... we are at war."

- - - - - - - -  
- - - - - - - -

Howdy!

Yes, I know: It took me long enough.

I know my updates have been coming in longer intervals, and I do apologize. My muse has been very flighty and she has been fluttering to one story to the next a lot lately. My other story, Final Approach Ranma, has graduated from 'anti-writer's block' story to 'full-all-out' story so that commands some of my time. The title for 'anti-writer's block story' has been passed down to: Lesbian Amazonian Dominatrix. It has been fun as hell to play with and a plot was starting to jell out of nowhere before I got rid of it. I want to keep it as pointless and plotless as I can, that way I don't have to think.

This is on top of my other hobbies, summer being here, and 'real life' that has been intruding more often now. There are somethings that are more important than writing, and spending quality time with the person you plan on getting old, stinky, and falling part with is one of them. (Hey! We've been together this long!)

As always, I would like to thank those of you that took the time to leave a review.

Thanks for reading.


	31. University Part 12

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

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University Part 12

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The grayness of the season gripped the campus as a blanket of fresh snow powdered the ground. The blandness of nature contrasted sharply with the man-made structures that dotted the campus. The blue skies disappeared in favor of the gray, dreary overcast that hovered above the city like a huge, dirty wash-rag.

The depressing weather went unnoticed by one Ranma Yonai as she spent the first two weeks dividing her time between catching up on the assignments that she had missed during Akiko's funeral and fighting robots that dropped in on the average of twice a week. Ranma found the distractions welcome after losing Akiko, but she was so absorbed in her activities at first, that Tenchi started to feel slightly displaced.

Tenchi was slightly frustrated by the uncertainty as to what to do. On one hand, he wanted to take Ranma into his arms and make the pain go away. On the other hand, Ranma had a stubborn streak of independence a mile wide and he was afraid that he might offend her or worse, push her away. In the end, Tenchi adopted the simple tactic of being near Ranma, but not crowding her personal space.

It was a tactic that was both wise and appreciated by Ranma. He was there when Ranma needed a shoulder to cry on and absent enough for her to get herself together. For Ranma, the death of Akiko was more painful than being disowned by a certain panda-man and kicked out by the Tendos all those years ago.

Happosai sensed Ranma's grief and concentrated on teaching her the more mediative and spiritual techniques of the art and less on the physical aspects. It had helped Ranma some in dealing with her loss and instead of pushing it aside like she head been doing, she began to deal with it. Even though Happosai's guidance had eased the pain, the death of Akiko left a void in Ranma - a void that Tenchi was filling.

Then there was Tenchi...

Ranma found emotions were now gravitating around Tenchi.

Of course every silver lining has a cloud.

_"He been so nice to me...," _Ranma thought to herself as she doodled on what was supposed to be an essay. _"What am I going to do?" _she lamented to herself._ "I want to... I don't know... but if these damned attacks keep up, something's going to give."_

Ranma pushed that troubling thought away and focused on enjoying the moment. Ranma was currently seated across from her love interest in the small cafe that Tenchi and Ranma frequented. The place welcomed them with its warm drinks and somewhat homey atmosphere. The coziness of the interior was in stark contrast to the cold and foreboding night that surrounded them. The two were taking a brief break from their studies to savor their drinks and to make small talk. Occasionally one would laugh at the other's joke or both would fall silent as they each plowed through the school work they brought with them, Ranma's looking more like a small mound compared to Tenchi's.

This had become a welcome routine for the two, that and snuggling when they could. Ranma smiled at the little joke that Tenchi made and Tenchi returned the smile.

_"It's good to see her smile again after the death of her grandmother," _Tenchi thought. _"I just wish I could shake the feeling that she is hiding something from me."_

The gaiety of the conversation was interrupted by the cellphone-sounding buzz of Ranma's communicator. Ranma sighed heavily as she reached into her purse and removed it. She expertly, and with practiced ease, killed the video and speakerphone part of the communicator and held it up to her ear like a cellphone.

"Hello?" she said into the small device.

Tenchi watched with curiosity as Ranma spoke into her phone. He idly noted that these interruptions had been more frequent lately as he silently watched the conversation unfold on his end. He studied the changing expressions that crossed Ranma's face. First there was a mixture of weariness and concern, then Ranma's brow furrowed before it turned fully to worry, and then resignation.

"Where?" Ranma said into the phone emotionlessly. This was followed by a moment of silence.

"Okay," Ranma said through a heavy sigh. "I'm on my way."

As Ranma put away her phone, she cast a worried look at Tenchi as she shove her communicator back into her purse. "I gotta go," she explained. "My friend is in trouble... again."

"Ranma," Tenchi said as she was quickly gathering her books, "is there anything that I can do to help you and your friend?"

Ranma smiled at Tenchi's offer, but answered with a shake of her head. "No. It's something I - we have to deal with." Ranma then looked at the expression on Tenchi's face and felt the pain of guilt from lying to him. "Look... I'll call as soon as I get back."

"I... see," Tenchi replied carefully. He then gave the redhead a measured look - one that clearly showed doubt. "I'll walk you," he offered as he began to rise from his seat.

Ranma's brain froze momentarily. "Ahhh... that's all right. I can find my way," she said in a uneven manner.

"Are you sure?" Tenchi asked in a firm tone, feeling rejected.

Ranma sensed Tenchi's mood and was lost. "I'm sorry," she said softly as she returned to quickly shoving her books and papers into her backpack. "But...," her voice then trailed off.

"Ranma," Tenchi said softly as he laid a hand on Ranma's, making her hesitate. "Is there something you need to tell me?" He continued weakly, "Is... there someone... else?"

Ranma head jerked up and she looked at Tenchi's in the eyes. Her own eyes widened as she studied the almost 'kicked puppy-dog' expression that Tenchi was wearing.

"No. No there's no one else," Ranma answered quickly. "It's just... personal. I can't really talk about it."

Tenchi looked back at Ranma and slowly removed his hand from hers. "I see," he said evenly.

"Tenchi," Ranma pleaded. "I'll tell you all about it... sometime, but not now. I have to go."

"Call me when you get back."

"It might be late," Ranma said as she stood to leave.

"I'll wait," Tenchi state firmly as he touched her arm, causing her to look down and make eye contact with the seated boy. They stared at one another for less than a second. The urgent call from Sailor Mars was forced from Ranma's mind for a split second. But only for a split second.

Ranma regarded Tenchi with wide eyes and swallowed the lump in her throat that had formed there. "Okay," she said. "I have to go... but I'll be back as soon as I can."

Tenchi nodded as Ranma hurried out of the cafe.

_"I can't keep doing this," _Ranma thought angrily to herself as she walked with quick steps away from the warmth of the cafe and the warmth of Tenchi's company. _"I know he knows I'm lying, but what the hell am I supposed to do? Say 'excuse me but I have to go help save the world'?"_

Ranma's breath trailed behind her in the air like a thin fog as she made her way deeper into a nearby alley.Looking about to see if she was alone, Ranma transformed. _"I hate this," _she thought bitterly. _"I can't stand by and let those things hurt innocent people, but I can't keep telling Tenchi that I have a friend in need."  
_  
She quickly made a portal and widened it. _"I just hate lying to him,"_ was her final thought on the matter as she stepped into a war zone.

------------

The bridge of the command-ship was mammoth. The room was about the size of a small auditorium with the curved walls forming a sphere with a transparent floor that bisected the room. The rows of control consoles, chairs and screens were floating, supported by invisible means, ringed a wide open space where the command chair floated. Each ring of controls and readouts served an important function of the gigantic ship. From fire control, damage control, engineering, and environmental, everything was in reach and can be overlooked by the commanding officer.

The outer curved walls, above and below the clear floor, were nothing but display screens that normally showed what was going on outside the ship, that gave the effect of being surrounded by nothing but the stars. The views could be changed to match the tactical needs of combat. Other floating screens could be overlaid against the outer walls for further tactical enhancements.

The room was massive, roomy and practical for carrying out large operations like what was planned. Unfortunately everything came to a grinding halt when the order to 'stand by' was issued and the Forth Grand Fleet was pulled aside for escort duty.

Admiral Karikachi paced back and forth on his bridge in frustration. _"I can't believe that the Fourth Grand Fleet was called back by special orders,"_ he thought irritably for the umpteenth time._ "Probably some bloody paper pusher wanted to justify his job by having a diplomatic liaison aboard during the operation."_

He stopped in his pacing to look out among the gathered ships that filled the star field. There were literally thousands of ships of various size and shapes. The largest of the ships were easily three to four miles long, sporting very evil looking main guns used for planetary bombardment and smaller secondary guns capable of blowing small, half mile, asteroids to dust.

The Admiral was very proud of the three massive fleets that were gathered for this operation. Though the reports on the remains that were found of the last fleet suggested that the enemy possessed powerful weaponry, he wasn't perturbed at all. That was just a small, nothing patrol in comparison to the forces he commanded.

_"There is more firepower gathered here than anytime in the history of the Jurai Empire and probably any other time,_" the Admiral thought with more than a touch of pride and satisfaction. _"This will be like the hand of God reaching out and crushing anything that dares get in our way."_

The Admiral strode away from the screen and back toward his command chair. _"With this much firepower at my disposal,"_ he thought smugly, _"whoever or whatever destroyed the standby fleet will not dare show themselves - ever."_

Feeling his anger wane as he studied the vast fleet, the Admiral couldn't help but smile. _"If it does show... we'll teach our enemy what it means to attack anything Jurai - before we deal with it once and for all."  
_  
-------------

Light snow fell on the steep roof of the Folk Crafts Museum. The fluttering of the snow created an almost magical haze that hid the surrounding buildings in a white, semitransparent veil. Inside one of the traditionally built buildings that made up the museum, Ranma rummaged around the welcome desk, desperately looking for something to do.

Ranma was bored.

Bored. Bored, bored, bored.

She sighed and once again paced the room, broom in hand, inspecting it for any signs of dirt. Visitors to the museum had trickled down to next to nothing between the weather and the sporadic attacks that naturally made people leery of going out.

_"It's nice that it is slow, but man,"_ Ranma groused to herself as she swept up an insignificant amount of dust. "_And what in the hell is going on with my Senshi senses? Ami hasn't been able to help and Pluto is no damn good either."_

Since the death of Akiko, Ranma had noticed that her highly tuned senses seemed muted by something. At first she dismissed it as the shock of Akiko's death, but weeks later her senses still were just as muted.

_"Maybe I'm still getting over it," _Ranma thought with a sigh. _"Oh granny...," _the last though with an added pang of grief. Ranma sighed again and emptied the collected dust into the trash. _"Gotta think through the problem... it's like... almost being blind."  
_  
Ranma sighed. She didn't like to think about what she had lost. It made her depressed and that much harder to focus on anything, Senshi related or not. Still, not thinking about it wasn't helping much either, but Ranma didn't feel too motivated in dealing with.

Being bored, Ranma's mind wandered to another subject.

_"I wonder what Tenchi wants to do tonight?"  
_  
------------

Later found Ranma and Tenchi engaged in a classic 'lip-lock' as their hands roamed freely over the others body. The kiss deepened.

_"How'd my hand get inside his shirt?" _Ranma briefly mused before abandoning that train of thought in lieu of enjoying the moment. She concentrated instead on the feel on Tenchi's skin against her fingertips as they traced over his well formed chest.

Tenchi was doing his part as his hands were busy exploring parts of Ranma's body that before now, were untouched by no but her. Ranma's kiss deepened and her breathing quickened. She shivered when Tenchi drew one of his fingers down her spine.

Still in close embrace, they broke apart and panted for air; their faces just a scant distance apart, the youths gazed into each others eyes. Ranma's face was flush as she panted for air, her chest heaving with every breath. She looked into Tenchi's eyes with wide, sparkling ones of her own; her heart pounded in her chest.

"Wow," she whispered with a smile.

"You said it," Tenchi replied, adding a smile of his own.

Both leaned into one another, their lips a hairbreadth away from contacting when the moment was spoilt by the unwelcome sound of Ranma's communicator going off loudly in her purse. Ranma sighed heavily in disappointment. Her disappointment was echoed by the sound of Tenchi's own frustration.

Ranma untangled herself from Tenchi and reached for her purse - and hesitated for just a moment before extracting the communicator from its place. Tenchi just watched her with a feeling of loss as she spoke into the cellphone-looking device.

"Hello?" Ranma said into the mouthpiece. Tenchi watched as Ranma's shoulders sagged and as she brought one hand up to massage her forehead. He studied Ranma body language as he always did when one of these calls came and it began to suspect that there was more going on than 'a friend having problems'.

One was Ranma's total reluctance to discuss or accept any help with the situation.

_"I wish she would let me help," _was a thought that revisited Tenchi in these moments as a mixture of different emotions flowed through him.

Helplessness because he couldn't be part of helping whatever problem that was consuming Ranma's time, loss knowing that Ranma was going to have to leave soon, and jealousy over whatever was taking her away from him. The last emotion he actively suppressed, but it lingered beneath the other emotions and like a small fire, burned there.

Tenchi knew the next words that Ranma was going to say. It was like a script that kept repeating itself and Tenchi had quickly learned the lines by heart.

"I'm on my way," Ranma spoke into the phone, before closing it and replacing it in her purse. She turned to Tenchi sitting on the edge of his bed. "I gotta go," she said plainly.

"Your friend again?" Tenchi asked with doubt clearly in his voice.

Ranma sighed as she nodded her head. "Yeah," she replied and then added softly, "I'm sorry."

Tenchi sighed himself as he watched the redhead gather what little she had with her and stood, staring down at him.

"Look," Ranma said pleadingly. "I'm really sorry... but I gotta go. I know it's not fair, I know it's a pain, but please understand."

"Let me help," Tenchi said as Ranma's voice trailed off. "Why won't you let me help you with your friend. Why?"

Ranma sagged her shoulders. It was a question that Tenchi had been asking more and more frequently as the calls continued. Ranma looked at Tenchi with lost eyes.

"I'm sorry," she whispered out. "I can't... it's complicated." She noticed the hurt look on Tenchi's face. She sighed. "Look, I promise that I'll explain when it's over with, but I can't, I'm sorry..."

Tenchi nodded his head and stood to walk Ranma out of the dorm. He sighed again. "Okay," he finally said. "I know you have to go, but I want you to know if there's anything I can do..."

Ranma smiled at him, leaned up and kissed him. "I'll let you know."

------------

Five of the Senshi were gathered in Usagi's room, discussing battle plans.

"This is getting old," complained Minako. "Can't we do something to prevent these things from landing in the first place?"

"And what's up with Pluto?" Michiru asked. "I didn't think it was supposed to take this long to fix the Gates.

"I spoke with her yesterday," Ami piped in, "she has run into complications."

"What kind of complications?" Usagi asked.

Ami sighed. "Something about temporal distortions in the matrix."

Three of the girls blinked at their friend. Ranma, having already heard the report from Pluto, just half listened.

"W-what does that mean?" Michiru asked. "In plain Japanese, please."

"It means...," Ami paused a moment to think of the best way to describe the situation. "We've all seen fountains with the lights on the bottom, right?"

She was greeted by three girls nodding their heads like bobble-head dolls.

"Well think of the lights on the bottom of the pool as the reference points, and the water itself as space/time. When the water is undisturbed, the light doesn't get scattered," Ami explained. "But when the water is full of ripples, the light gets scattered and distorted."

"And why is that happening?" Minako asked.

Ami shrugged her shoulders. "Not really sure, but we - that is Pluto and I, don't think it's natural."

"No shit," said Michiru tiredly.

"At first we thought that they might be the 'aftershocks' of whatever destroyed the reference points," Ami continued. "Because it's too constant, we think our 'friends' are using this as a sort of jamming."

"What about the space fleet that Pluto said was coming?"

"It's either still on it's way or already here," Ami answered plainly.

There was a collective weary sigh from the girls in the room.

"What about you Ranma?" Michiru asked. "You always had built-in sensing, aren't you feeling anything?"

Ranma blinked as she realized that she had just been asked a question. "What?"

Michiru sighed. "I asked if you can feel anything - you know the robots. The bad guys?"

"Um, no," Ranma answered with a shake of her head. "Somehow my senses are being dulled. Ami thinks it's related to the distortions in the space/time continuum."

"Whoever they are, they know how to limit our intelligence gathering," Usagi said. "What about the early warning system?" She asked thoughtfully. "Is it affected?"

"No," Ami answered. "But it is so primitive that it won't detect the distortions as anything more than background interference. Because of that it can't pick out when these things come in unless there are a whole lot of them."

"So much for that being a help," Minako said with a sigh. "We'll just have to be on guard."

"What I don't understand is why they just drop one at a time," Michiru commented. "I mean, they have to have the means of dropping a hundred of these things in. Why don't they?"

"Who knows?" Ami asked rhetorically. "Who can understand the workings of an alien mind?"

One of the girls filled the following silence with a heavy sigh.

"Any change in the robots and the guys piloting them?" Michiru asked.

"The robots attacking in the last few weeks are probably probes to see how strong we are." Usagi said more to herself that anyone else in the room. "It's like a few years ago when the Protectors came."

"But this is different," Ami pointed out. "There is no rhythm or reason to the attacks."

"Any clues on who's responsible?" Minako interjected.

"Nothing more than what we already know," Ami answered. "These things just drop out of the sky... and you know the rest."

Usagi sighed as she massaged her temples. "We don't know anything more that we did a month ago," she complained. "Pluto is still messing with the Gates of Time so we're still blind there and..."

Silence fell among the girls. "We need to start making plans to strike back."

"How?" Ami asked pointedly. "We don't even know where to strike."

"When Ami, Pluto, or Ranma detects this fleet that we're expecting, we'll send Ranma to intercept," Usagi answered. "We'll try to deal with them on a diplomatic level, but if that fails we must be prepared to use force."

Silence ruled the room for a few heartbeats.

"Are you alright Ranma?" Usagi asked. "You seem quiet."

"I'm fine," Ranma replied. "I just got stuff to deal with."

"Anything we can do to help?" Rei asked as she leaned forward, towards to the redhead.

Ranma and Rei's eyes locked for a moment. Ranma sighed. "No... nothing yet. I just gotta decide how I'm going to handle something."

"Oooo, boy problems?" Minako asked in a voice full of curiosity.

Ranma's eyebrow twitched.

"Minako, don't tease her," Usagi said mindfully, noting Ranma's reaction. "If something's bothering her, she'll tell us when she's ready."

The room fell silent again as all eyes turned expectedly at the redhead. Ranma blink-blinked at her surrounding friends that wore a 'well?' look on their faces and sighed. "Look," Ranma began, "I'm just having problems making up excuses to keeping leaving, that's all. I know that there is nothing we can do about it, we can't pick the times when these things drop in... but... damn..."

"I know it's hard, Ranma," Minako said as she rested a comforting hand on the redhead's shoulder. "We're all having problems with our personal lives because of this, but we must keep our... extracurricular activities secret."

Ranma reluctantly nodded in reply.

-------------

"Sir, the Fourth Grand Fleet has arrived. They have detached a small escort fleet and the special passengers are going to be arriving here within the hour," the communications officer reported to the Admiral. "Until then, we are to continue standing by."

"It's about bloody time they got here" Admiral Karikachi bitched. "Keeping us here on standby for over two bleeding weeks. What the hell were they thinking?"

"Yes sir," the communications officer agreed somewhat tiredly.

Admiral Karikachi eyed his subordinate. "What's this about special passengers?" He asked with frustration in his voice. "We're a warship not a bleeding cruise ship. What the hell kind of operation do they think this is?"

"I don't know, sir," the communications officer responded, this time keeping the tiredness out of his voice. "All I know is that the order to stand by came from the Imperial House."

Admiral Karikachi rose from his seat and started to pace back and forth in front of his command chair. "Damn right it came from the Imperial House. If it didn't I would have told those paper-pushing, worthless, self serving a-holes to stick it and continued on as planned."

The communications officer stood silently, wishing that the Admiral would dismiss him so he could go back to other doing things rather than hearing yet another rant from him. The Admiral's rantings were coming more and more as the desire for action over boredom was wearing down on him.

Admiral Karikachi stopped his pacing and eyed the now bored officer before him. "Within the hour you say?"

"Yes sir," the communications offer responded automatically.

"Probably some stupid paper-pusher trying to use this as an excuse to inflate his self worth."

"Yes sir."

The Admiral sighed. "Very well, carry on," he finally said, dismissing the officer. Admiral Karikachi retook his command chair and grumbled on the injustice of having to suffer fools in a time like this.

----------

Ranma's communicator buzzed. Tenchi let out a long, disappointing sigh as Ranma pushed herself off of him.

"Dammit," she muttered as she stood, rearranged her clothing and reached into the inner pocket of her purse. Holding the damning device in her right hand, she hesitated a moment, lost in thought. Then she flipped the cellphone-like device and held it up to her face. "Yes?" She asked tiredly into the mouthpiece.

Ranma let out a very long sigh as she listened to the voice on the other end. "Okay," she said. "I'm coming."

She folded the communicator and placed it back in her purse. She stood silently and stared at the purse for a few heartbeats.

"You have to go, don't you?" Tenchi asked. The redhead nodded.

"I'm sorry," she answered in a tiny voice. "I can't ignore this."

Tenchi sighed. "Go ahead, I'll wait for you."

"I don't know how long I'll be," Ranma pointed out.

"Doesn't matter," Tenchi replied. "I want to see you again tonight."

Ranma gave Tenchi a understanding nod before silently closing the door behind her.

----------

"Sir," the communications officer said loudly, "the special passengers are ready to beam aboard."

Admiral Karikachi grunted a response and nodded his head. he then leaned back into his command chair and concentrated on the terse things he was going to give his 'guests' when they arrived._ "Damn idiots,"_ Admiral Karikachi thought with a touch of malice._ "Holding up this important mission so that they can score points back home. All I have to say is those bundling, self-serving bureaucrats better stay the hell out of the way or I'll have them confined to quarters." _

"This is the Flagship Shosha," the communications officer said into the floating screen before him. "We are ready to receive."

On that, the opened space of the large bridge was filled with light that was like one broad beam, running floor to ceiling. The beam then separated into individual strips of light that then dissolved into human beings. Admiral Karikachi's 'guests' have arrived. Whatever terse and belligerent words that Admiral Karikachi was going to say to the officials for delaying the operation was lost when he saw exactly whom had boarded his ship.

"Your Majesty," he croaked out as he faced the Emperor, his wives and heir. "Welcome aboard."

------------

Because of the park's abundant trees, the wind was broken up and offered relief from winter's grip. The air was still cold, but not having the wind deprive Ranma of her body heat was an improvement. The couple made their way to a bench under a leafless tree where Tenchi sat down and motioned Ranma to follow suit._  
_  
Ranma emotions were in turmoil as she watched Tenchi visibly gather his thoughts together. Ranma fidgeted as she waited for Tenchi to speak. She distracted herself by taking in her snow covered surroundings and the bright morning sun. The park looked so different for some reason now, than in the times that they were practicing martial arts .

"I heard a rumor," Tenchi began suddenly making Ranma jump slightly, "that because of the attacks, they're thinking about closing the school down for awhile."

Ranma sat and watch Tenchi carefully. "What would you do if the school closed?" She asked.

"I'll go home until this blows over," he answered a shrug. Tenchi paused for a moment and swallowed. "I... I would like you to come with me if they do close the school."

Ranma sat at stared back at the boy she loved. After a few heartbeats, she smiled. "I can't do that. My home is here is Tokyo. I can't leave my friends and family behind."

A small silence fell between them.

"I understand, but I don't want anything happening to you," he protested gently.

Ranma smile at his concern. "You don't have to worry about me," she said. "I have family that lives in Kawageta. If the school decides to close down and it gets too rough to stay in Tokyo, I will go there with my sister and uncle's family."

Silence revisited the young couple. "I see...," Tenchi said as he shifted in his place on the bench, unconsciously putting himself closer to Ranma. "Kawageta? Where is that?"

"It's in Fukushima prefecture. It's near Lake Inawashiro, about thirty-five kilometers south-west of Fukushima," Ranma replied automatically, having answered the same question from her roommate not more than two hours earlier.

"Oh...," Tenchi said slowly. "That's kinda far, isn't it?"

Ranma nodded.

"I know that's really far from Okayama, but can I, er, visit you?" Tenchi asked hopefully.

Ranma smiled a smile that reached her eyes and warmed upped the cool morning. She knew that Kawageta and Okayama were a good one day, if not more, travel. "Of course, silly boy," she answered playfully. "But let's not worry about it until they decide one way or the other if they're going to close or not."

Tenchi returned the smile and nodded.

-----------

In southwest Japan, a huge, tree-like thing wavered into existence above a large, three story house by a sizable lake.

When it wavered out of existence three and a half seconds later, the house by the lake was gone.

------------

"What's going on?" a highly alarmed Washu asked. "Why were we taken from the Earth?"

"There is a highly dangerous life form in this solar system," an officer explained. "We had orders to remove all of you for your protection."

"This has to do with the destruction of the fleet stationed here, doesn't it?"

The officer in charge nodded. "Yes, with the obvious hostile intent of this creature, we felt it best to get the royal family out of harm's way before dealing with it."

Washu berated herself, she should have seen something like this coming. She was so caught up in her own investigations into the power suits that she neglected other things. Distrations. So many distrations, she was having problems keeping up with everything. She sighed heavily, but before she could issue a comment, the officer she was speaking with was communicating with the Admiral.

"Sir! We are missing one," the officer spoke into the small device. "We are missing Tenchi."

"Stand by," the order came tersely.

On the brigde, the Admiral turned to Yosho. "Sir, do you know where your grandson would be?"

Yosho blinked a few times and thought a moment before a look of realization passed over him. "He's at school," he said. "I'd forgotten, being away all these months. He should be in Tokyo."

"We need to retrieve him," the Admiral said. "Do you know where to find him?"

"I know where his dorm is," Yosho responded.

"Show us and we can monitor for him there," Admiral Karikachi said in a controlled way. What was a simple operation had already been confounded by delays, misinformation, and now a missing heir to the throne. It didn't help that the Emperor himself was on board. "We can then pick him up when he goes back."

Yosho nodded as he spoke. "We'll also need to be discreet about it to minimize the amount of contact with the people of Earth. They don't know about us and we need to keep it that way."

Admiral Karikachi nodded himself, parroting Yosho's movements. "We'll send down a few scouts, dressed in local costumes," he offered, but annoyed by the restrictions placed on him. "When one of them sees him, we can transport him up and get all of you to a safer space."

-----------

Ranma was annoyed, irritated, and pissed. She untangled herself from the wanting arms of Tenchi, sighed heavily, removed herself from the very comfortable lap she was sitting in, and stalked crossed the room to her purse.

_"This is the umpteenth time since those damnable robots, power-suits, or whatever the hell they are called started dropping out of the sky that-" _Ranma's internal rant was broken by the shrill sound of the communicator going off again. _"And it's every single time I try to make time with Tenchi! Dammit!"_

Of course it didn't help that her highly tuned Senshi sense failed to detect the arrival of the attackers either. In frustration, Ranma snapped the device open with enough force that it made a loud 'crack' sound as the flip-top hit the stop.

"What!" Ranma said irritably into her communicator.

Holding the phone-like device up to her ear and clenching and unclenching her other hand, Ranma managed to bring herself to a somewhat calm state. "Okay," she said flatly into the communicator. "I'm on my way."

Tossing her communicator back into her purse, harder than she should have, she snagged the strap and threw it over her shoulder.

"Gotta go," she said with great reluctance and a bit of frustration at the still seated Tenchi.

He nodded and replied. "I understand."

After Ranma closed the door behind her, Tenchi sat in thought for a moment. A few seconds ticked by and a determined looked formed on his face. Standing, he slipped into a heavy coat and exited his room, determined to find out what the pressing problem that Ranma or her friend had, and hopefully help solve it.

The cold evening air bit into Tenchi's face as he exited the dorm and he quickly ducked as a snowball sailed his way. He smiled at the sight of dozens of fellow students, male and female, engaged in a light hearted snowball fight.

"Hey Tenchi!" Tetsuyuki, Tenchi's roommate, called. "Are you looking for Ranma?"

Tenchi nodded in response as he dodged another errant snowball.

"She headed that way," Tetsuyuki said while pointing in said direction before ducking under another snowball. "She looked upset. You guys have a fight or something?"

Not bothering to answer him, Tenchi headed off in the direction indicated and soon spotted the back of the quick stepping redhead. Tenchi followed Ranma at a safe distance. Ranma was so preoccupied with what she needed to do, she failed to notice that Tenchi was tailing her.

_"This is driving me crazy,"_ Ranma fumed to herself as she dodged around a woman overloaded with shopping bags. _"On one hand, I'm not really lying to Tenchi by telling him I have a friend in trouble, but I'm not being entirely honest with him either."_

Ranma weaved around another group of people. _"Where are all these people coming from? I couldn't transform back behind the dorms because of the stupid snowball fight... gotta stay focused... where can I- Ah! Here's a good spot."_

Several yards behind her, Tenchi weaved around the same group that Ranma had dodged earlier. _"I know you said you didn't need my help,"_ Tenchi thought to himself as he weaved around more strollers that dotted the sidewalk. _"But it has to be serious and-"_

Tenchi thoughts trailed off as he spied Ranma ducking into an alleyway. Picking up the pace, Tenchi made it to the mouth of the narrow alley and peeked around the corner. He spotted Ranma as she made her way deeper into the alley, her form easily defined in the shadowed, deserted, and narrow street.

_"This should be good enough,"_ Ranma thought carelessly. _"I'll just duck behind this dumpster and then I'll be hidden from the street."  
_  
Tenchi's eyes locked on Ranma as she made a turn, she was suddenly hidden by a large dumpster that jutted into the alley. There was a flash of light, as if a doorway were being opened and closed then nothing else. Hurrying, but being cautious as to not to slip on the ice on the ground and in making any unnecessary noises, Tenchi worked his way to where Ranma was last seen.

Rounding the dumpster, Tenchi's mind froze at what he found. It was a doorway.

The back doorway to Chirp-Chirp Love Hotel.

------------

Ranma, now Sailor Sun, compressed time the instant she stepped through the rent in space/time that she had made. The world froze around her.

The large humanoid-shaped robot had an arm raised and pointed in the direction of Sailors Mars and Uranus. The two scouts looked almost comical as they hung in mid-air. Sun noted Neptune off to one side in the midst of preparing her attack.

_"Three of them here and they still called me," _Sun thought with a certain amount of annoyance._ "I gonna start having Happosai train them if the three of them can't handle one little robot."_

Turning her attention back the source of her problems, Sun saw that the forearm to hand of the robot was glowing as it was in the middle of powering up what Mercury had described in one of their meetings as a "high energy particle beam". Sailor Sun just thought of it as just a nasty way to cause mass destruction. Sun sighed.

_"This is getting old,"_ she though with a great deal of malice toward the metal man.

Sun quickly charged up a very small Solar Flare sent it on it's way. The sphere of energy shot toward it's time-frozen target at a speed that seemed to slow as it left Sailor Sun's time compression field. It was still moving at a good clip, but far slower than reality.

Upon contact, Sun watched in fascination as the large robot was quickly blow apart and pieces of it flew high in the air until the energy of the attack was spent. All in slow motion. Smoke hung like a solid cloud as jagged pieces of metal seemed to suddenly hang suspended in mid air. The robot, with a large jagged hole in it was cocked backward, away from the initial point of contact.

_"Well that was easy... as always," _Sun thought as she relaxed. She sighed. _"Every time, it's the same shit."  
_  
She scanned the area with her highly developed Senshi senses and found nothing. _"It takes me longer to get away, find someplace to transform, and make it here than it does to deal with these things."  
_  
Sailor Sun straightened the hem of her skirt and was about to deactivate her time field when something caught her eye.

Movement.

Where there shouldn't be any.

Sailor Sun blinked. _"Must be a trick of the light,"_ she thought as she eyed the small stationary store across the street. _"I'm still in compressed time - there shouldn't-"_

Her brow furrowed as she definitely spied movement where there shouldn't be any. Sun double-checked herself. _"I'm definitely in compressed time. What the hell going on?"  
_  
She extended her senses again and directed them toward the small stationary shop where she thought she saw the shadow move. _"Nothing,"_ she concluded. _"Had to have been my imagination-"_

Her thoughts were interrupted again and her eyes narrowed as she studied the insides of the shop with her eyes. _"There is definitely someone moving around inside!" _Her mind shouted. She quickly double-checked her Senshi senses. _"Still nothing..."_

Alarmed, but curious, Sun concentrated on a variation of 'The Soul of Ice' she learned from Happosai to compensate for the friction of her movement against the air. She cautiously made her way across the street, keeping one eye on the shadowy outline of the figure that seemed to move about, as if looking for better vantage points in which to watch.

Half-way into the street, the mysterious shadow stilled.

Sun froze as the shadow faded into nothingness.

Taking one last look around, Sun reentered normal time and finished crossing the street, ignoring the robot as it finished blowing up into scrap metal behind her. Sailors Mars and Uranus recovered from the blast and caught a glimpse of Sun as she entered the stationary store. Neptune de-powered her attack and followed.

Just inside the door, Sailor Sun carefully studied the environment of the small shop. Inside there were racks of notepads, reams of paper and small 'gift size' photo albums. Having gotten a good bearing to where the watcher was standing, Sailor Sun made her way to the back of the store and as expected, found that there wasn't any way of getting out of the shop except the front door. She looked up and down the narrow row, using her Senshi sense to find any clue.

She found one.

A small one.

_"Someone created an opening in space/time right here," _she concluded. _"But I'm the only one that can do that."  
_  
"What's wrong?" Mars asked as she came upon Sun.

"Someone was watching us from here," Sun answered. "I saw them still moving when I was in compressed time."

"When you were... how's that possible?" Mars asked.

Sun studied the sealing rupture in the fabric of space/time. The tear was hauntingly familiar to what space/time looked like after she used it. Sun blinked again to reexamine the distortion closer, but in that moment space/time had healed itself and there were no traces. She blinked again and considered something, then shook her head.

"I'm not sure," Sun finally said as she straightened. "But this looks like - like when I-"

The other two Scouts joined them, interrupting what Sun was about to say. Sun's ire from earlier returned and derailed her train of thoughts as she pursued another subject.

"Looks like you three had the situation under control," Sun stated, forgetting the mystery at the moment. "Why'd you call me?"

Neptune and Uranus blinked at Sun's non-greeting.

"It was just me at first," Mars answered defensively. "I didn't know Neptune and Uranus were in the area."

Sun sighed heavily. "We need to get better organized," she said. "We need to know who is out and where to avoid calling in extra help when it's not needed."

"Why should that make any difference?" Uranus asked. "We're a team, aren't we?"

"That's not the point," Sun snapped. "Some of us are running out of excuses to give friends and coworkers on why we need to step out at the damnedest times."

The moment turned tense for a few heartbeats. "Sun," Mars said evenly in a very controlled way. "I know it's hard, it's hard on all of us. You're not the only one that is running out of excuses."

Sailor Sun stared at her fellow Senshi and nodded with a sigh. "I'm sorry," she apologized softly. "I know... I'm just tired. Okay?"

The others smiled back at their redheaded friend and nodded in understanding.

-------------

Tenchi staggered around the snow-covered streets, not really paying attention to his surroundings.

He felt hurt, he felt, betrayed, he felt unsure. He had heard rumors of some of the girls that were financially strapped finding work in places like soaplands or imageclubs of some other adult business, but Ranma worked at the museum...

_"Why?" _Tenchi asked himself.

----------

After de-transforming, a mentally weary Ranma made her way back to the campus with quick steps. The sidewalk wasn't as busy as it was when she left and she had hopes of picking up where she left off with Tenchi.

_"Brrrr... it's cold," _Ranma thought as she hugged herself for warmth. _"I hope I can get some hot chocolate with good company soon."  
_  
Entering the through the front gate, Ranma headed in the direction of her dorm. Outside, sitting on the steps was the 'good company' she was just thinking about.

"Hi Tenchi," Ranma merrily said as she walked up to the pigtailed boy. "How's' it... going?" Ranma's voice trailed off.

Ranma immediately sensed something was wrong when Tenchi didn't smile as he usually did when they got together. Ranma also sensed the coolness, that felt colder than the season, directed at her.

"Ranma," he said in a neutral tone, "we need to talk."

Ranma stared at Tenchi with wide eyes. "What about?" She asked worriedly.

A heavy and tense silence fell between them. Tenchi sighed and looked around the bustling campus. "Not here. The park."

Tenchi stood and walked away, heading off in the direction of the park where they usually did their sparing sessions. All Ranma could do was follow Tenchi and ponder at what could be the matter.

_"I'm losing him,"_ Ranma thought. _"All these damn interruptions and half-truths have finally gotten to him. Dammit! It's not my fault. What am I going to do?"  
_  
All too soon they arrived at the park. Being in the middle of the winter, it was devoid of anyone except themselves. Tenchi sat on a bench and looked lost for a moment. He then motioned for Ranma to sit next to him. All was quiet between them as the moments dragged by. Ranma felt the need to say something, anything, but was lost on what to say.

"Ranma, I know you been having... problems," Tenchi started in an uneven tone. "And you've been... not wanting to talk about it."

Ranma stared at Tenchi with worried eyes. Tenchi swallowed hard before continuing. "I wanted - want to help you and this morning when you got called... I... followed you."

Ranma looked at Tenchi, not certain at first to what the implications of what he had just said. Then realization hit her like punch to the gut.

"H-how much did you see?" She asked, very afraid.

"Enough," Tenchi said. "Does your friend work there?" He asked hopefully.

Ranma blinked at him. "Where?"

Tenchi sighed. "I followed you until you got to the backdoor of the Chirp-Chirp."

Ranma thought on that in confusion, then it dawned on her what Tenchi was talking about. "No!" She said firmly. "I - no. No way in hell."

"Then what were you doing there?"

Ranma remained silent. Tenchi was determined to wait it out.

"I- I have to go talk to my friend," Ranma finally said. "If she says it is all right to tell you... I'll explain everything. Okay?"

Tenchi nodded.

"Look," Ranma continued, "if it were just me, I would tell you in a heartbeat... but there is more than just me involved and...," Ranma finished by waving her hands around in a lost way.

Tenchi sighed. "Okay... but I want to know what's going on."

Ranma nodded.

Ranma leaned back against the freezing back of the bench and pulled her communicator out of her purse, thought about it and put it back. Digging around some more, she extracted her cellphone and dialed a number she knew well. Holding the phone up to her ear, she counted the number of rings as she eyed Tenchi out of the corner of her eye.

Tenchi seemed to understand Ranma's unasked questions and stood and moved away from her, giving Ranma a certain measure of privacy.  
_  
"Looks like things are going get complicated,"_ Ranma thought as she waited for the phone to be answered. _"I... have to deal with this."  
_  
_"Hello?"_ a voice on the other end asked.

"Um... it's me, Ranma," Ranma said carefully into the phone. "I need to talk to you."  
_  
"Sure, what's on your mind Ranma?"_ Ami asked, picking up on the tone in Ranma's voice.

Ranma sighed.

"I'm with Tenchi," Ranma explained. "I want to tell him... everything."

There was an almost dreadful silence. Ranma thought maybe the connection got broke or something.

_"Ranma," _Ami said breaking the silence, "_I know that this may seem... callous, but have you considered that having a boyfriend right now might be a liability?"_

Ranma stared off into space, not wanting to consider that possibility. "I know that, but-"

_"What I'm trying to say is that our first duty is to protect those who can't protect themselves,"_ Ami explained. _"If having a boyfriend gets in the way..."_

Ranma continued to stare at nothing.

_"... then... maybe you should reconsider having one,"_ Ami finished softly.

Ranma continued to stare off into space. She recognized the grain of truth in Ami's words. She glanced over to Tenchi who was now pacing back and forth at a respectful distance. 

_"Why does my life always seem to mess up when I have something good going on?"_ Ranma lamented to herself._ "Akiko was there for me when I literally had nothing... not even hope... now she's gone. Now I have Tenchi and I have to give him up... it's not fair!"_

Ranma brought her errant thoughts under control before they strayed too far. "_There has got to be another way. I love Tenchi and... I have lied to him enough. If I can't trust someone I love, who can I trust?"  
_  
Ranma thought deeply of a few moments before narrowing her eyes. "You're right, Tenchi... Tenchi is getting in the way," Ranma said in a low and slightly angry voice.

_"Ranma?" _Ami's voice leaked from the phone.

"I'm going to tell him," Ranma said firmly into the mouthpiece. "Everything."

The silence on the line was more deafening then before. The wind picked up rustling the leaves in the trees.

_"What!"_ Ami exclaimed loudly.

"I said," Ranma said in the same soft, clear voice. "I'm going to tell him the truth."

_"Ranma,"_ Ami said in an imploring way. _"You know that's impossible. No one is suppose to-"  
_  
"Granny knew," Ranma said, trying to keep her voice flat.

Silence revisited the line. Ranma imagined Ami with her mouth hanging open on the other end. _"How long had she known?"_ Ami asked.

A certain silence fell between the two friends. Ranma broke it with a soft sigh. "She knew from the beginning, even before I met the rest of you," Ranma finally replied.

The silence returned and grew between them.

_"I... see,"_ Ami finally said. _"But Ranma, this is different. You don't-"_

"What the hell am I supposed to do?" Ranma snapped at her friend over the phone. "Fight for love and never have any? Be a good little weapon of mass destruction and the hell with having any life? What the hell kinda life would that be anyway?"

Ranma eyed Tenchi who was now giving her an odd look, over the phone all she heard was the ragged breathing from Ami.

"I love him," Ranma said firmly. "So I should trust him. I shouldn't have to lie to him."

There was more silence from the other end that lasted a few heartbeats. _"Ranma, I still don't think it's a good idea," _Ami implored over the phone. "_What if doesn't work out for you and him? What if you decide to break up later? What are you going to do then?"  
_  
Ranma considered that for a very short moment. "I love him," Ranma repeated. "You can't love someone and plan on it being over... it's like admitting defeat before the fight."

Ami sighed on the other end, but said nothing. Ranma closed the cellphone and looked over at Tenchi. He was staring back at her from a respectable distance from the bench she was sitting on. Ranma sighed, smiled warmly at him, and tried to control her nervousness as she thought of the best way to tell Tenchi.

_"Now... what am I going to say?" _Ranma's mind raced. _"I can't say: 'Oh Tenchi, I'm a Sailor Scout. A reincarnated warrior from a long dead civilization and I'm here to fight for love and justice'. How lame."  
_  
----------

A shadowed figure stood in the narrow opening between two buildings across from the park, spying on the pair though a small device held up to his face.

"Target sighted," the man said.

"Roger, stand by," came the barely audible reply.

"Be aware that target is in company of another," the man whispered.

"Roger that."

The man continued to watch the pair closely, ignoring the curious and odd looks that were given him by the passersby.

------------

During Ranma's thoughts, Tenchi returned her smile. Ranma patted the place next to her on the bench. He approached, brushed off some snow and sat next to her. The wind decided to pick up.

"Brrrrr," Ranma commented as she hunkered against the wind. "It's cold."

Tenchi scooted closer to the redhead. All was quiet for a moment.

"Tenchi?" Ranma said softly.

Tenchi blinked at the redhead.

"Yes Ranma? What's wrong? Can you tell me now?"

"No. Yes. Maybe."

Tenchi sighed. Dealing with women was never his strong point, but Ranma was different. She didn't try to own him or make him change into something he wasn't. Their relationship had grown over the months. Though it was scary at times - especially admitting what they were feeling, Tenchi liked the idea and wouldn't mind that he was... hers.

"What?"

Ranma sighed, this was hard.

"Tenchi, I... like you and everything," she said carefully. "But..."

Silence fell between the two. The silence stretched out into one minute, then two.

"But what?"

Ranma raised her head and looked and Tenchi in the eyes. She swallowed hard.

"I have to tell you... something," Ranma stammered out.

Tenchi at this point was growing concerned for his... girl. Her feelings for him hadn't changed, had they?

"Ranma," Tenchi said in a quiet voice. "Do you still love me?"

Ranma's eyes flew open wide at the question.

"Yes" she blurted out. "I still love you. I just that..." her voice trailed off.

Tenchi moved closer to the nervous, fumbling redhead. He encircled her with his arms and drew her close to him. There he rocked her gently back and forth.

Ranma felt safe with Tenchi's arms around her. Her mind had locked up - this was not going as she had hoped. She basked in the warm and feel of Tenchi's body against hers as she gathered her wits.

"Tenchi?" she said quietly from his arms.

"Yes?" he answered as he continued to rock her.

"If I told you a secret - and important secret. Could you swear never to tell anyone?"

Tenchi stopped rocking and pulled back from Ranma a bit to look at her eyes. He still kept her in his arms. Looking into Ranma's eyes he can tell the importance of what she had to say.

"Yes," Tenchi answered unflinchingly. "I could."

"You swear?" Ranma asked in an imploring way.

Tenchi nodded as he answered, "I swear."

Ranma's eyes looked wild for a moment before refocusing. "It would be easier just to show you. Let's go somewhere private."

-----------

"Strike team in position, sir," the communications officer announced. "Waiting for orders."

Admiral Karikachi nodded. "Tell them to go."

"Attention all recovery teams," the communications officer said in a thin voice over the comlink. "The prince has been located. Prepare to begin recovery operations."

"Command, be aware that the prince is still in the company of another," the man on the other end replied.

"Roger that team three," the officer paused. "Is that the only human around?"

"Yes, sir. They are in a deserted, open area."

The officer looked to the Admiral for direction. The Admiral gave a single, curt nod. "Your orders are to separate and recover the prince immediately."

"Roger that, stand by for our signal."

"Confirmed. Teleporters on standby."

----------

Ranma walked closely beside Tenchi as they made their way towards the park entrance. She was thoroughly enjoying just being near Tenchi and her attention was divided between him and what she was about to reveal. Because of the numerous distractions, Ranma failed to notice two oddly dressed men until they were almost on top of the couple and why she was caught so off guard by what happened next.

The two men, one dressed in an undersized Shinto Shrine Maiden uniform and other in a loud Hawaiian shirt with shorts, literally barged into the park as Ranma and Tenchi were exiting. Ignoring the oddity of their garb, the couple mistook the two men as nothing more than as fellow students going through some weird club initiation. So Ranma and Tenchi separated to allow the men passage.

The man in the Shrine Maiden outfit reached out and grabbed Tenchi by the shoulder and pulled him a few feet back into the park, the Hawaiian shirted one pushed Ranma back and away from Tenchi before dashing into the park himself. Thinking now that it was mugging or some other assault, Ranma quickly went into a defensive stance and prepared to defend herself and come to the aid of Tenchi.

She never got the chance.

With a flash of blinding light, the men and Tenchi were gone.

Ranma eyes widened at what had just happened. The roller coaster of emotions of being incredibly happy one moment and having it ripped away in the next was too much for her to grasp. Her legs folded and she fell onto the frozen ground. There she sat, coming to terms of just what happened.

Wide eyed and lost, she did not feel the cold dampness that was invading her posterior as her body heat melted the snow beneath her. It had all happened so fast that she was slightly in shock from it. One moment she was strolling happily along with Tenchi by her side, the next she was on the ground, unharmed physically, but shaken emotionally.

_"W-what?"_ Ranma's mind repeated until it came out of it's self imposed mantra.

Rising from where she fell, Ranma snapped out of the shock and concentrated on the matter at hand. Extending her senses, she felt the slight tale-tell markings of the folding or tearing in the fabric of space/time from high above. Using what she could without transforming, she trailed the marking until it disappeared beyond the orbit of Mars.

Ranma hyperventilated from the emotions that were welling up inside her. _"The enemy! They took Tenchi,"_ she thought with grief. She drew a deep, ragged breath. "They took Tenchi," she echoed aloud in a quiet, forlorn voice.

Wrestling control of her breathing, she wheezed out a faint "No."

Then the reality of the situation came crashing down on her. _"They took Tenchi," _she thought.

"No," she whispered again.

_"They took Tenchi," _her mind repeated.

"No," she said loudly.

_"They took Tenchi!"_ her mind roared.

"No!" She screamed to the heavens. Shock was quickly replaced by an anger that flowed through her body, making her blood boil and her heart cold - and with it came power. They took Tenchi...

... and they would pay.

----------  
----------

I would like to thank everyone on their patience on this. I know it took me long enough, but on the bright side I have the last three chapters firmly outlined and it is just a matter of working on it.

I am so guilty of wanting to finish "Final Approach Ranma" first, doing a few smaller projects, and hanging around the chat room and, er, chatting with other writers that hang out there. This, and fighting off and then succumbing to every other idea that invaded my mind from time-to-time. I'm sure y'all understand when I say "so many ideas, so little time".

Should I mention ferrets that try to make off with my brain? Tupperware is a good place to hide brains, but you have to "burp" the container "just so" to preserve the freshness. Store at room temperature, please.

About the funeral robe that Ranma wore in the last chapter: Depending on where you are, funeral rites and wear vary from place to place. I tried to make it as generic as I could, and while it is true that white robes are more common than black, wearing black (among family members of the deceased) is not unheard of. This, of course, is what I've been able to learn from online sources which I can't vouch for the reliability of.

Thanks for reading.


	32. University Part 13

I would like to thank Ghost in the Machine pre-reading this chapter with his trusty baseball bat and microscope.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

------------

------------

University Part 13

------------

Ranma had no idea how she ended up high above the Earth in her Senshi form, nor did she particularly care. Right then she was seeing red and wasn't particularly thinking straight. Hovering there, clear of the atmosphere, she pulled more power into her scan. The jump in power extended her senses as she sought to discover where they took her Tenchi. The trail faded out when it got beyond the orbit of Mars where it got lost in the background distortions that had plagued her and Pluto for the last few weeks.

Frowning, Ranma opened up and poured more power into her scan than she ever dared before. When it became a question of power, for Ranma, less was better - the fear of losing control always lurked in the corners of her mind and held her back. She had erected self-made barriers between her and "it" and carefully maintained them. Now it was the fear of losing someone near and dear that assaulted those self-erected barriers, breaching small parts of them like holes in a dam. Ranma felt a slight sensation of euphoria as the massive energies flowed through her. Shaking off the feeling, she concentrated on redirecting this wellspring of energy until it pushed through the considerable interference that shrouded everything.

It was if a layer of dust was blown clear of a photograph, giving her a clear view of the picture.

Ranma traced the thin line in space made by the alien ship beyond the orbits of Saturn and Neptune. Pushing further out, she felt the passage of the offending ship that carried the man she loved until it pulled along side one of thousands of ships that were just outside of the Oort Cloud that surrounded the Solar System. A rather large ship that clearly was the flagship.

Anger and other dark emotions raged through her at the thought of Tenchi being in the hands of people that callously endangered innocents with their senseless attacks. This created a spike of energy that Ranma would have found surprisingly pleasant if she were paying attention.

Without a second thought, Ranma went into 'super' mode with wings of fire and small flares sprouting and returning to her body. She tightened her fist around the hilt of her sword as it formed in her hand and she prepared to go and reclaim Tenchi. Not sparing any time for planning, Ranma cut a opening in space/time and moved through it.

She was going to get Tenchi back or kill each and everyone of them trying.

She materialized about three hundred thousand miles from the main body of the fleet and began scanning the thousands of ships more carefully. Something in the back of her mind, acting like a tactical computer, began plotting several avenues of attack. Ranma noted about a hundred or so ships breaking from the main fleet, heading her way. "_Maybe I don't have to kill them, I'll just put the fear of god into them," _she thought as she redirected more power to her weapons and less to her senses. _"But if they hurt Tenchi..."_

Another spike of energy flowed through her as it traveled in on that emotion. The tiny hole widened in the mental dam that held her power in check. Ranma was forced to pause when a wonderful, dizzy, and slightly intoxicating feeling came over her with the power. Ranma revealed in the sensation briefly, almost losing herself in it.

Ranma shook her head, clearing it. _"That's never happened before,"_ she pondered momentarily. She blinked a few times and centered herself emotionally. _"I'll deal with it later,"_ she concluded before returning to the matter at hand.

Invisible to all, a woman watched everything with interest in her aged eyes. She smiled. _"Perfect,"_ she thought.

----------

"Umm... sir?" A young tactical officer said nervously. "We thought we had a massive energy reading from above the third planet, it then disappeared and is suddenly now approximately two hundred, fifty thousand miles away and closing rapidly."

The Admiral just looked at the young officer. Seeing it was a relatively new addition to the crew, me mustered a smile to boost morale. "Very good," he said with warm authority. "Dispatch the nearest squadron to intercept."

"Aye, sir," the officer replied as he passed the orders. "Six hundredth and fifty second is on its way."

-----------

Tenchi was confused. One moment he was under a strangely dressed man in the snow, the next he found himself in a large, dome-like room. Before he could mount an offensive at the man on top of him, the cross-dressing man got off him and apologized.

"I'm sorry, your lordship, I have to report in," he explained as if it explained everything.

Tenchi sat on the floor, dumbfounded by the unexpected turn of events. He managed to look around and couldn't help but spy his house. It was intact and carefully placed in the center of the massive room - complete with the surrounding landscape. He sighed.

"Great. Just great. And right in front of Ranma too!" he groused to himself.

The man in the shrine maiden's uniform was busy talking into a tiny microphone as the man in the Hawaiian shirt rubbed his arms for warmth.

"Sorry about the surprise," the man in the loud shirt said sincerely. "But we had orders to get you out of there for your own safety."

Tenchi blinked once. Twice. Three times. He then rubbed his forehead and sighed again before asking, "What's going on?"

-----------

Ranma closed the distance between her and the oncoming ships. She could've done so faster, instantly even, but she decided to make a show of it: a show of force. Her sword faded into nothing as she directed raw energy to her hands. Small balls of concentrated energy formed in the palm of each hand as she powered up two solar flares - ones that were more powerful than she had ever dared to make. Holding her arms out to the side, hands glowing with contained power, set her sights on the largest ship in the fast approaching group.

The well-oiled war machine in her mind went into action as it examined the oncoming fleet's scans and offered countermeasures for them. Ranma ignored the offered jamming as she wanted to make perfectly clear to the kidnappers what she was capable of doing. Also in the back of her mind, other calculations were being made on where and when to lob the first of her powerful attacks. It was tricky because she wanted to have the first salvos be near-misses - shots across the bow - to show that she meant business. She was planning to sending a message, loud and clear: You're messing with the wrong girl.

Figuring she was close enough that there would be no mistake about what she was capable of doing, Ranma reared back and prepared to fire the first shot.

"Sun! What are you doing!" came a call from nowhere. Ranma ignored it as she fed still more power into her hand.

"Sun! Stop! Think about what you're doing!" Ranma continued to ignored it while concentrating on making fine adjustments to her impending attack.

"RANMA!" the voice bellowed.

This got Ranma's attention as she jumped at her true name being called like that. "Who-?" Ranma asked in confusion as she looked around.

"It's Pluto," the voice said firmly. Ranma now recognized the voice of the Senshi of Time. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Ranma looked at the bracelet on her wrist as sound vibrated through it. "They took Tenchi-"

"Who took- oh my," Pluto responded in a truly surprised way. "I... see... but you're not going to do Tenchi any good if you do something that will get him killed," Pluto said loudly and sharply. "Think! Why else would they take him?"

Ranma hesitated as the emotions that fueled her drained away and she thought about what was going on. Realizing her true position and the one that Tenchi was in, Ranma stopped her advance and withdrew from the approaching fleet slightly.

"Wh-what the hell am I suppose to do?" Ranma asked trying to sound angry, but instead it came out shakily.

"We have to assume that he is safe for now - unless you do something stupid. Like attacking them outright," Pluto said calmly. "We need to plan... there may be more people involved than your boyfriend."

Ranma looked at the fleet, with its many ships - the advancing ones were close enough to see clearly now. Ranma weighed the words of the oldest Senshi. She then carefully dissipated the energies that she had gathered for her assault.

"Okay," Ranma said in a still shaky voice. "I'm on my way back. The usual meeting place?"

"Yes," Pluto replied. "I'll try to get everyone there. You go get Ami, Haruka and Michiru and met back at the shrine."

Ranma sighed as she looked in the direction of the distant ship she suspected of carrying Tenchi. She then summoned her sword and cut a path back to Japan.

The old woman was puzzled. At first it seemed that everything was working slowly toward her goal, then in an unexpected twist, Sailor Sun appeared and headed right toward the main Jurian fleet. She watched in glee as Sailor Sun tapped into a tiny fraction of her true power, prepared two massive solar flares, only to stop and retreat back to Earth.

_"What is going on?" _She pondered as she watched the fleet stop its advance once their target disappeared. She then gave a shrug of her shoulders. Still, it was by far the most fun she had had in ages. Ranma unexpectedly breaking off what should have been an attack confused her for a moment.

_"Hmm... I must look into this,"_ she thought with an amused grin. _"Can't have my future friend, slave or toy go astray, can I?"_

-----------

"Sir! It's retreating! - It's gone!"

Admiral Karikachi nodded smugly. "Of course. It clearly saw what it was up against and decided to save itself. Not so brave now, is it?"

The others on the bridge just nodded absently, but politely, in agreement while they monitored their screens.

"Can you track it? Did you get a bearing on where it was going?" The Admiral asked of his tactical officer.

"No, but we did get a strong reading when it first appeared," the uniformed officer replied. "It manifested itself above the third planet."

"That's where command said it went after it destroyed the fleet stationed here," the Admiral thought aloud with a nod.

"Yes sir," the tactical officer said. "It is safe to assume that this is where it came from."

"Very well," the Admiral said with authority. "Then it is our job to track it down and make it answer for the crimes it committed against the Jurian Empire. Bring the fleet in closer... to a point just outside the orbit of the fourth planet - we wouldn't want it to get away."

------------

Sun, Mercury, Neptune and Uranus faded into Rei's room at the Cherry Hill Shrine. Pluto and the others were already there, waiting. The four girls detransformed and made their way to their usual spots around the room.

"Okay, what's wrong?" Usagi asked once everyone was seated.

"They took Tenchi," Ranma answered evenly in a voice laced with emotion.

Ranma's fellow Senshi were quiet as they digested what Ranma had just said.

"They?" Michiru asked. "Who are... oh my god - you don't mean?"

"I didn't foresee anything like this," Pluto stated. "It didn't show up in any on the timelines. But since you upped the power in your scans, the Gate are working better than they have in a while."

"What are we going to do!" Ranma asked, half panicked. "When... in front of you, what the hell am I going to do?"

At that point, the room then became too noisy as the other girls began to ask Ranma too many questions at the same time. Ranma was clearly getting frustrated with the situation and was saved when order was restored when Usagi caught everyone's attention with a loud, but well timed, "Excuse me!"

Usagi had learned the value of firm diplomacy. A heavy silence blanketed the room.

"What happened?" Usagi asked while eyeing the others in the room. "Tell us everything, don't leave any detail out."

"We was at the park-" an emotionally frazzled Ranma began.

"In this weather?" Haruka interrupted.

Usagi gave Haruka a sharp look that shut her up. "Please continue," she said as she motioned to Ranma to go on.

"We were at the park," Ranma began again, "and...

-----------

Tenchi rubbed his forehead for the sixth time as he felt frustration build inside him. He looked at the tired looking officer before him and each gave a measured look at the other.

"We have to go back for her," he stated firmly and matter of factly. "If there is a danger, like you claim, then there is no way in hell I'm going to leave Ranma back there."

The Officer of the Day sighed not quite to himself as he addressed the pigtailed man. "I'm sorry sir, our orders were to extract you as soon as possible. Our orders didn't include any... extra personal."

"Ranma is not an extra personal!" Tenchi snapped back. "She's...," his voice trailed off as he tried to find the right words. "... someone special."

The older man eyed the younger one with understanding. "I'll bring it to the attention of the Admiral's staff," he said. "In the meantime, may I suggest that you relax," he waved at the house in the middle of the room. "We are not sure when it will safe to approach the Earth again."

Tenchi sighed heavily. _"Ranma seemed happy and nervous at the same time, like she had come to some sort of decision..._," he pondered._ "I wonder what it was."_

Walking over to the side steps of his house and popped down. He began ruminating over the last few weeks. _"Ranma has been close and distant at the same time. I hope she's all right."_

He reached down and ran a finger along the edge of the step he was sitting on. _"Dammit, I wonder what the hell she's going to think about all of this," _he thought as he looked around the vast room and paused. _"How am I going to explain it?"_

He sat up straight on that thought. _"Oh man, I can't just say: 'Say Ranma, I'm a prince from outer space' - right," _he took is the room again from his seat on the steps. _"Then again... if they bring her here, she'll freak out."_

He pursed his lips as his eyes narrowed. "I gotta go get her myself," he concluded aloud. Tenchi stood with a purpose and strode over to where two blue uniformed men were guarding the door to the room. As he approached, the men turned to face the heir to the throne.

"Hey you," Tenchi said loudly to the pair. "Where's my grandfather?"

-----------

"... then Pluto contacted me and told me to come back. She said that doing something stupid might get Tenchi killed. So, here I am."

Silence revisited the room as everyone mulled over the tale Ranma had just told.

"Oh my," Rei said softly.

"You said it," Minako said.

"You know what this means, don't you?" Ami asked of everyone and no one in particular. "This means that there is no doubt that they know that Ranma is Sailor Sun."

Silence ruled the room for a few heartbeats.

"And they probably know who the rest of us are," Usagi added. "Everyone's families may be endangered."

Everyone looked wide-eyed at each other.

"Oh shit." Who said that was unclear, but it reflected everyone's thoughts. The room broke into haze of loud talking and general pandemonium.

"Okay! Okay! Quiet down! Quiet down!" Usagi said loudly, somehow bringing the room back into order. "We need to get everyones family to a safe place," she declared.

"Where would you suggest that be?" Rei asked.

"For starters, anyplace that they wouldn't be normally," Usagi replied sharply. "They have obviously been watching Ranma and her boyfriend for some time now, so if we can get them someplace other than their regular haunts, they should be okay." Usagi then mentally added, _"I hope."_

"That might be hard to do-" Rei began.

"Oh-oh," Ranma said with wide eyes, derailing the current crisis.

"What's wrong," Rei asked.

"I can sense them," Ranma said in a spaced-out way. "When they... kidnapped Tenchi, I kinda... stepped up the power I use when I scan... and... it pushed the interference away."

"You can sense them now?" Ami asked.

Ranma replied with a short nod. "Yes... they're moving closer to the Earth. They're somewhere between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars."

"How come you can sense them now?" Ami asked in a voice filled with curiosity.

Ranma blinked at her friend. "Like I said, I kinda pushed my power higher than I liked. It sorta 'blew' the interference away."

"Why didn't you use that before?" Rei snapped at Ranma. "It would have saved us a lot of trouble."

"Because I was scared, okay?" Ranma shot back. "I wouldn't have got what I did if I didn't lose control."

"You did lose control - all because now your boyfriend's in danger," Rei said in irritation. "Now you suddenly decided that it was all right."

"I wasn't thinking and lost control!" Ranma defended in a voice that would have cut through steel. "Don't you understand what it means if I lose control? No - of course you don't. You have no clue what the hell your talking about and you think-"

"Listen here-" Rei interrupted sharply.

"No, you listen-," Ranma barraged in, beginning her retort.

"ENOUGH!" Usagi loudly proclaimed, stopping the escalating argument. "Right now we have more than enough problems to deal with without making it worse by bickering over something that doesn't matter. We need to concentrate on the situation that's happening NOW."

Ranma and Rei shared a mutual glare before they softened. "Right... sorry," Rei offered.

"No problem," Ranma replied, tugging on her ponytail as she sighed and looked away. "I'm sorry too."

There was a moment of silence as the heat of Ranma and Rei's spat dissipated.

"Okay," Usagi said after all was calm. "Pluto, this is the fleet we've been expecting?"

Pluto held out her staff and produced a three dimensional image of the Solar System. "Yes," she answered. "This is where it is," she continued as she pointed to a place between the orbits of Saturn and Jupiter. The ships were represented by small pin-pricks of light that collected into an orderly blob of light.

"There's so many," Michiru softly commented.

"We can't fight that," commented Haruka.

"We're going to have to," Usagi said in a no-nonsense way. "First, we need to get our families to a safe place."

The others in the room blinked a few times at Usagi's words before the meaning of them sank in.

"What? Why?" Rei asked.

Usagi sighed. "Like I said earlier, there is no doubt that they know that Ranma is a Senshi," she explained. "If they can figure out that Ranma is one of us, then it is a sure bet they know who the rest of us are. We need to get our families to safety before anything happens to them."

Being reminded of Tenchi's plight reignited Ranma's anger toward those that took him. "I'm going to get Tenchi," Ranma declared as she rose from her seat, transforming as she did.

"Wait," Usagi said in a pleading way. "You can't go - they just might kill him just in spite."

"Well what the hell am I supposed to do?" Ranma, now Sailor Sun, snapped back. "Just let them have him?"

Usagi stood, walked over to Ranma, and gripped the smaller redhead by the shoulders. The grip wasn't very forceful or strong and Ranma could have easily broke the hold, but she did not resist. Usagi had captured Ranma in the eyes with her own and addressed her softly. "Now listen, do you want to get your boyfriend killed?"

Ranma physically shuddered at the thought before shaking her head.

"Then stop thinking with your glands and start thinking with your head," Usagi sharply said while leaning back slightly. "They took Tenchi - in front of you - they were obviously sending you a message. Do you understand?"

Ranma was captivated by the force of the blond's personality. Over the years, Usagi's leadership skills peeked through the wide-eyed innocence of youth, and this time it was in full force. Ranma dumbly nodded in agreement to Usagi's words.

"We need to come up with a plan," Usagi said evenly. "WE need to get him back without endangering him. Do you agree?"

Ranma nodded her head with eyes still wide.

"Then settle down," Usagi continued in a more gentle way. "There may be more hostages than we know of and we'll have to try and rescue them all. Okay?"

Ranma sighed. She was defeated by Usagi's reasoning and nodded in consent. Usagi rewarded Ranma with a smile and massaging her shoulders.

"Okay," Usagi said while directing her attention to the oldest of the Scouts. "Pluto, can you use the Gates now to see if anyone else got abducted?"

Pluto nodded as she studied the Garnet Orb at the top of her staff.

"While Pluto and Ranma are working up some intelligence, I want the rest of you to get our families to a safe place, somewhere that they wouldn't usually go," Usagi said firmly.

"Th-that would mean we would... might have to tell them the truth," Ami pointed out nervously.

"Not necessarily," Usagi countered. "I'm sure that we can come up with something... creative. Whatever it is, I'll leave to you, Rei and Makoto to work out. But get our families into hiding somehow until this is over with."

The girls stood and nodded.

"After everyone has done that, get back here," Usagi side firmly. "We have a rescue to plan." She then focused on Ranma in front of her. "What about you Ranma? Do you have anyone?" Usagi asked of the emotionally charged Senshi.

Ranma thought deeply for a moment, then nodded her head. "Yes. My sister is anyway with her boyfriend at some engineering thing, I'm not really sure where. Everyone else... is where they always have been, but since granny died..."

Usagi drew Ranma into a hug, a comforting one. "It's okay," she said with a smile. "The others can take care of your family and get them to safety. I need you here to help Pluto gather as much info on our enemy as we can. We'll get Tenchi back - you'll see."

Ranma couldn't help but smile at Usagi's optimism.

-------------

By the time the Scouts returned, two and a half hours had passed. It took some convincing from some of the families to leave, but with the Senshi being well known and explaining the dangers there were only minor problems. Ami and Rei came up with the scheme of telling the families that due to mistaken identities that they were in danger. As lame as the excuse was, it seemed to work fine for everyone, save one lone exception.

Ami and Haruka walked into the room in the midst of a conversation.

"I'm going to have a lot of explaining to do to my mom when this is over with," Ami said forlornly.

"That bad?" Haruka asked.

Ami nodded. "She's mad and feels like I didn't trust her," she replied. "I'm never going to hear the end of it."

"How did it go?" Usagi asked, curious as to what the two were talking about.

"It went surprisingly well - except for Ami's mom," Rei answered. "Everyone else pretty much cooperated. We told them that their daughters had already been moved to safety and that they should too."

"How did you get around that it was just them and no one else?" Usagi asked.

Rei smirked. "That was easy... Makoto came up with it."

"Oh?" Usagi asked with giving the brown-haired Senshi a questioning look.

"Um... yeah," Makoto said quietly. "We sort of said that we were in danger because of a case of mistaken identity. We were already in a safe place because we, that is our civilian halves, were targets."

"Yeah, and we added that we were worried about our families, so we insisted the Senshi warn them," Rei finished.

Usagi stared at the three girls, blink-blinked, and then focused in on Ami. "That actually bought that story?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes," Ami replied. "That is, except my mom."

"Your mom?"

"Ami's mom... well. She needed more convincing," Rei added - not so helpfully.

Usagi exhaled a long slow breath. This wasn't good. "What did you have to do?"

"I had to show her," Ami said. "She wouldn't budge unless she had proof that I was okay."

"Show her? As in...?" Usagi prompted.

"As in 'Hey mom, did you know I'm a Sailor Scout?', show her," Rei answered not to helpfully for Ami.

The rest of the Scouts groaned. "You didn't..." Michiru began before trailing off.

"We had too," Rei defended her friend. "Her mother wasn't going to budge until she knew where Ami was."

"It won't take her long to figure out who the rest of us are," Usagi said pointedly.

"I'm sorry," Ami said, distress clearly lacing her voice. "I shouldn't have been with Rei or Makoto when we went to my mom's. I should have left it up to them to handle it and now I've made a mess of things."

Ranma sighed as she considered Ami's feelings. It wasn't long ago that she was in the same boat. "Don't worry Ami" she said supportively while drawing the short-haired girl into a half-hug. "My granny knew and it was okay."

Ami just nodded in reply as she and Ranma ignored the looks from the others over Ranma's revelation. The moment dragged out until it reached an uncomfortable level of quietness. Pluto then cleared her throat.

"Ranma and I have located her boyfriend and his family," Pluto announced to the returning Scouts. "They kidnapped his whole family - obviously they were not leaving anything to chance." The breaking of the silence was like a wall falling and everyone immediately relaxed slightly.

"So, what's the plan?" Makoto asked as everyone settled into their traditional spots around the room.

"The plan is that Ranma will open a way to the ship that her boyfriend and family are being held at and we get them out," Usagi answered. "It sounds simple, but we can expect resistance the moment our presence is detected."

"Right," Pluto added. "We are going to time our assault when everyone is in one spot at the same time."

"We get in and out before they know what happened," Usagi finished.

"Why not have Ranma go in using her time-thingy," Rei interjeced. "She could be in and out before anyone knew she was there."

"That was suggested already," Usagi said, glancing at Ranma. "I have my reasons for not going that route."

"What are they?" Ami asked inquisitively.

Usagi looked at Ranma and back at the others. "Lets just say, it was a command decision and leave it at that," she explained.

Rei opened her mouth to say something more, but was derailed by the look Usagi was giving her.

"How much resistance are we talking?" Michiru asked.

"Not really sure," Usagi admitted. "Ranma recognized some of Tenchi's relatives, but she was sure about some of the others."

"So who do we grab and who do we leave?" Ami asked.

"We grab everyone," Ranma answered with a smirk. "If we end up grabbing the wrong person, then we'll have hostages."

Usagi sighed. "Ranma... we've talked about that."

Ranma looked down and stubbed her toe at the floor. "Right - sorry."

"There will be no hostage taking on our part." Usagi said clearly to everyone in the room. "If we grab someone by mistake, we will let them go. Understand?"

--------------

Tenchi waited impatiently for his grandfather to finish whatever it is he needed to finish and come and talk to him._ "I gotta talk him into letting me go back and get Ranma,"_ he thought for the thousandth time since he arrived at aboard the ship. _"If the situation is as the... whoever that guy was said, then I gotta get her."_

He stopped his pacing and eyed the door for the hundredth time. "Stay where you are", "we have to take care of some details", "don't wander off", and "we'll be there soon" were the explanations that were passed down to him while he waited_. "It's not so much the wait... okay maybe it is the wait," _he thought bitterly. _"But why give me lame excuses like I was child? Dammit, I'm almost twenty. I'm not a kid anymore."_

He walked around his out-of-place house for the umpteenth time

"And where in the hell is everyone else?" Tenchi asked aloud to no one. "I mean, Ryoko, Ayeka, and... Washu? Where is everybody." He stopped in his walk. "What the heck is going on?"

He sighed heavily and continued his trek around the house. He studied it for any signs of damage. This kept his mind occupied while he waited and he was pleased with the fact that there were no outward signs of damage. He paused and ran his hand over some weathered boards that sided the house and smiled. There were a lot of memories here and he would hate to have anything happen to it. Resuming his walk, he rounded the a corner where Azaka and Kamidake, Ayeka's log-like bodyguards, were stationed just as the door on the far side of the large transporter room opened.

"Tenchi!" A pair of excited voices rang out.

--------------

The room that Pluto and Sun elected to stage the rescue from was near the massive transporter room that Tenchi was in. It was a small utility junction that housed maintenance crawlways, duct work, and various other minor necessities for the function of the ship. It was narrow, long, strictly utilitarian and had a grated, removable floor that had pipes and other assorted fittings running its length. It wasn't a very large room, but it was large enough to fit a handful of men, their equipment, and various other tools to move about freely.

And it was directly across from the Senshi's objective.

The bulkhead at the back of the room glowed faintly as a thin line appeared on its surface. It quickly lengthened to stretch from the floor to a point about six feet high. The middle of the line widened until it was a wide tunnel, eight and a half feet across that hung on the surface of the metal wall. Ranma, as Sailor Sun, was the first through the opening followed closely by Mercury. Both girls looked about for any signs of discovery and felt relief that there were none.

As Mercury scanned what was beyond the door, Sun motioned with her hand. Soon the rest of the Senshi, with the exception of Pluto, silently piled into the small room.

"Is this the right place?" Moon whispered softly.

Mercury nodded as she replied in a low voice. "Yes. According to what Pluto and Sun found out, Tenchi should be in the room across from this one. There is a hallway - about four meters wide - that separates us."

"Right," Moon said. "Everyone remember the plan?" She was answered by many nods. She then turned her attention to a fretting redhead. "Sun, my offer for you hanging back still stands. Do you think you can stay in control?"

Sun nodded. "Yeah. I'm better - calmer. I can handle it. I - I just can only imagine the horrible things that they might be doing to Tenchi right now."

"It's okay," Moon said in a comforting way. "Pluto said he was just fine."

"At least up to ten minutes ago," Sun said.

Moon sighed. Having to deal with an emotionally stressed Senshi was difficult.

--------

"Oh Tenchi, I was so worried," Ryoko said as she pawed on the pigtailed boy. "I would have rescued you earlier, but some people wouldn't let me." The last said with a glare aimed at a primly dressed girl that pawed Tenchi's other arm.

Tenchi had just pried himself out of the death grip that Ryoko had him in, just to run into another female octopus by the name of Ayeka.

"Urk!" Was all Tenchi managed to get out before being squeezed by the smaller woman.

"Tenchi! You're safe!" Ayeka exclaimed while giving him another squeeze that would make a python proud. "We're all together again!"

"Let go, you old hag. Tenchi is mine," Ryoko shot out in frustration.

"Yours!" Ayeka shot back. "Why would he want anything to do with an ancient relic like you?"

"Ancient relic!" Ryoko shrieked as she began to power up. "You old, overweight snob!"

"I would rather do without either of you," Tenchi said firmly as he untangled himself from both girls. "I am not a plushie to be fought over."

Both girls stopped glaring at one another and focused their attention on a now irate man.

"T-tenchi?"

Before the situation could get anymore awkward, the door slid open again the Tenchi spied his grandfather, his great-grandfather, and a important uniformed man.

"Grandfather!" Tenchi called out while untangling himself from the two female octopuses. "I need to go back to Earth. There is someone I need to get."

Yosho raised an eyebrow as Tenchi began to explain.

------------

"Okay - ready?" Moon asked. Everyone gave affirmative nods as the tension rose in the small room. "Let's go."

Carefully, Neptune forced the door open and slid it silently into its pocket in the bulkhead and stepped aside to allow Sun passage, followed by Mercury. Though she and Mercury had scanned the hallway to make sure it was clear before entering, Sun instinctively looked around before stepping into the hall.

The corridor was wide and covered with smooth, silvery walls that were interspersed with darker vertical lines. The floor was a darker shade of silver that matched the lines on the wall, and the quietness of the place made Sun feel like she was sneaking into a holy place like a shrine. Sun tried to shake the exciting, creepy feeling that made her long for a bathroom, but quickly sobered up as she recalled the reason she was there.

_"Hang on Tenchi," _Sun thought with grime determination._ "I'll get you out of here."_

The group of fuku-clad girls crept across the corridor, stopping before the door of there objective. Mercury tested the door and announced, "Just as we expected. It's locked."

"Right. Sun," Moon motion to the Senshi. Sun walked up to the door and began to feed power into her fist.

"Remember: Control," Moon reminded Ranma. Moon had been growing ever concerned about Ranma's emotional stability since her grandmother passed away. If anything did happened to Tenchi, Moon wanted to be on hand to help control Ranma. This was the main reason for attempting the rescue this way.

Ranma thought about the amount of power she was feeding into herself and powered down._ "Some things are better handled the old fashion way,"_ she thought with a smirk. Taking one last scan to make sure nothing alive was in the path of the door, she reared back her foot and gave the door a good, solid kick. The door didn't even give any resistance to Ranma's kick as it buckled out of its frame and into the room beyond.

Not bothering to take in the scenery, the Senshi poured into the room, Mercury just behind Sun, just incase that she was needed to use her 'Bubble Spray" to confuse any opposition. At first there was none as the group of girls fanned out to set up a perimeter around the hostages.

What they weren't expecting was for the hostages to fight back.

----------

Tenchi was in he middle of listening to his grandfather explain the reasons why they were pulled off planet when the door exploded inward. The heavy door skipped across the floor like a pebble on water before coming to rest against the side of the house. The door made a clanking sound with each bounce.

Tenchi's attention riveted to the entryway, he watched as scantily clad girls rushed into the room.

"We're being attacked," the Admiral automatically responded by yelling into his com-link. "Get a squad in here now!"

Ranma sized up the threat factor in the room and found in negligible until she sensed several power spikes. She was soon faced with a cyan-haired women that was charging at her with a sword made of pure energy.

_"Ryoko,"_ Ranma thought as she remembered the cyan-haired colored woman. It wasn't everyday that you kissed a girl that good looking and forgot - and Ranma hadn't even if it was an accident. The remembrance of that interesting moment was overshadowed when Ryoko pulled out a glowing rod, wielded it like a sword, and charged Ranma.

Ranma surprised that Ryoko wasn't running away from her captors, but instead attacking her. _"She doesn't know us,"_ Ranma concluded mentally. _"She probably thinks were part of them... then why try an attack now?"_

Feeling like she didn't have the time to explain or find out what was going on, Ranma settled for quickly disarming Ryoko and rendering her unconscious with a pressure point attack. So quick was Ranma's counter that hardly anyone had seen the motion. Ryoko was laid gently on the floor by Ranma before she smoothly stood and caught up to the rest of the Senshi, who were engaging the blue uniformed guards.

Tenchi focused in on the girl that had just laid Ryoko out on the floor and was apparently leading the attacking pack into the room. He naturally assumed that she was the leader. As with the other girls, there was something around her that prevented him from actually seeing her. It was like a rainbow, the type of thing that happens when light is refracted at odd angles. Tenchi couldn't even make out her hair color in the ever-shifting light.

Tenchi stood his ground and withdrew the hilt of the Tenchi-ken and the blade snapped into life as he brought it into a guarded position. _"If it's a fight they want,"_ he thought as the girl froze at the sight of Tenchi standing there. _"It's a fight they'll get."_ He then summoned his Wings of the Lighthawk.

"Oh my... what did they do to you?" Ranma asked a powered up Tenchi. She couldn't help but be concerned for the pigtailed boy. She didn't have any time to consider Tenchi's condition as Tenchi went on the offensive. Not wanting to hurt him, Ranma found herself ducking, weaving and occasionally parrying Tenchi's thrusts.

"Ten-" duck "-chi," the Ranma tried to reason as she dodged. "We're-" sidestep "-to rescue-" fall back "-you." parry "Stop."

Tenchi hesitated and quickly broke from the fight. Making sure than he was in an easily defensible position, he questioned the strange girl. "Who are you? And how do you know me?"

"I'm - crap," she began to answer, only to be interrupted by two short blasts of - _"Laser fire? What the hell is this? Star Wars!" _Ranma thought incredulously. She deflected or absorbed the energy of the shots easily enough with her shielding, but had to stop and assist Jupiter in taking down more than a few of the blue-uniformed soldiers.

Seeing the royal guards being manhandled by the Senshi, Tenchi renewed his attack on the redhead. Ranma was nearly caught flatfooted as she didn't consider Tenchi a threat. She blocked a swipe of his sword with the bracer on her forearm, causing sparks to shower down on both of them. The two disengaged again and back away from one another.

"Will you stop that!" Ranma yelled. "We're trying to help you!"

Tenchi ignored the words of the redheaded Senshi as he concentrated on how to press the attack. "Helping me?" he asked. "By coming in here and attacking me?"

Ranma was visibly getting frustrated as Tenchi renewed his assault._ "What in the hell is going on? You'd think he would be glad to be rescued."_ Out of habit, Ranma continued to dodge somewhat absently as she mentally tried to ponder what could be the matter. Because of her current form, Ranma wasn't as pressed as she was in her ordinary form, but Tenchi's power-up compensated and he managed to keep her on her toes.

For Tenchi, it was an exercise in frustration. Not because that he couldn't lay a finger on the elusive girl, but because her moves were so familiar. Tenchi sped up his movements and his arms and blade blurred. By not really concentrating on the fight, Ranma was again caught flat footed and let out a slight "eep" as Tenchi's blade smashed into her shielding, creating showers of sparks to rain down from the points of contact. Unhurt, but confused, Ranma stepped up the speed of her counters, blocking more of his efforts with her own sword.

"Tenchi stop. We're here to help you," Ranma implored yet again.

This brought some attention from the pigtailed boy as a small fact seeped into his brain. Breaking from his attack, he dropped back and held his sword high in a guarded way.

_"And why in the hell is he acting this way,"_ Ranma thought worriedly._ "... he couldn't be part of all this... can he?"_

"How do you know my name?" He demanded loudly, uncertainty lacing his voice as it rang out in the large room.

"Um... Ranma told me," Ranma stammered out and immediately regretted it._ "Great,"_ she thought, _"How am I going to explain... wait a minute! I was going to explain anyway."_

Tenchi's face hardened. "If you even touched Ranma," he threatened as he focused on the possibility of Ranma being endangered. "There will be no place in the universe for you to hide."

"Umm - right," Ranma said, slightly nervous and flattered at the same time. "Damn it, Tenchi listen to me," she continued sharply with exasperation clearly in her voice. "Damn... stupid disguise field," she muttered. She lowered her guard and looked at the man in front of her.

Tenchi slightly lowered his guard in response, but not as much.

"Listen, we're here to rescue you," Ranma explained in a controlled, even way. "Ranma said you were kidnapped and we came to free you and the others. We're not the enemy - did they do something to you?"

_"I've seen these moves somewhere... and recently,"_ Tenchi thought in the back of his mind as he went over the fight in his mind. He stared at the girl in front of him, but any details to her identity were shrouded in a rainbow-like effect around her. _"But the only person I've been sparring with lately has been... nah. It couldn't...be...?"_

Tenchi narrowed his eyes and stepped forward and performed a complex thrust with a twist intended to change the direction of the blade in mid-swing. The Senshi he had been fighting performed a very familiar counter move, one of the first things he picked up from a certain classmate. _"It couldn't be...," _Tenchi thought once more.

"Ranma?" Tenchi ventured.

-----------

It was the most fun she'd had in centuries. Having detected Ranma's movement through space/time, she followed and gleefully watched as the Senshi barged into the room in their attempt to rescue the hostages. Though it was fun, it was counterproductive to what she had hoped would have happened.

_"She's not going to evolve if she keeps holding back," _the hidden observer thought. _"And what's she doing with that boy?"_

Studying the interaction between the redheaded senshi and the pigtailed boy, a scowl formed on her face. _"This is not good. The little fool thinks that such a pathetic creature like a mortal is important."_

She sighed her mouth formed a thin line. _"I might have to step in in and help the little idiot." _

----------

Deep inside the house, isolated from the fighting that was going on around it, a redheaded child-like genius was closely examining a most disturbing find.

_"How could these have slipped by me?"_ She pondered as she ran still another scan._ "If Tsunami didn't insist that I do a wider search that encompassed everything I have stored and not just what her and I worked on, I would have never found this."_

Washu studied the objects closely with various scanners and devices she had scattered throughout her lab. _"These are a masterful work of engineering art," _she concluded. _"Just the thing that Tech-master T'Pau would create."_

The objects in question were two small silver ear rings, each with five small rods dangling from the hoops. The small rods were made of a combination of metal and blue gem-like devices that resembled tiny cylinders beaded together. Washu had just barely managed to scratch the surface of the mechanics of the ear rings and was struggling to understand what she did manage to get. Next to the rings was a box with the designation number laser stenciled on the top.

_"Magnificent,"_ she thought to herself. _"T'Pau out did herself, but she was always better than Tsunami and I... I wonder where she is right now?"_

Washu's mind momentarily drifted back to those hectic days when everything seemed to be insane and urgent after the fall of the Moon Kingdom. It was after the colony on the newly named Jurai system was safely established and matured that T'Pau decided to head into the depths of space to find what else was there. T'Pau had left all her work and inventions in Washu's hands for safe-keeping, loaded up a spaceship of her own design manned by a crew of people just as curious as she, and headed out into parts unknown.

That had been over thirty thousand years ago.

No one had seen or heard from her or her crew since.

_"She must have known, even back then, that Sailor Sun would become a problem...,"_ Washu concluded. _"Now, how to convince Fire Walker- no, Ranma to use them?"_

That thought brought her back to her current situation. "That pompous idiot!" Washu muttered with much disdain. "The jackass of an Admiral has no clue what he is dealing with..." those words trailed off as she considered the evidence. "It wasn't Ranma, but it was Ranma... if it was her, then how?"

Leaving the ear ring-like devices on the flatbed of the scanner, she crossed to the other side of her lab and began cross referencing any and all places that Ranma was before she lost her tap on the tracker and compared them to the destruction of the fleet. She studied the readouts for what would probably be the hundredth time since this all started and then it hit her: _"We got a reading from Fire Walker - Sailor Sun - when she attacked the fleet,"_ Washu realized. _"Unless she lost all control over her cloaking, we should not have been able to do that."_

She studied the readouts and played back the records. "She, that is Ranma, was definitely asleep or at least in bed when it happened... someone went through a lot of trouble to replicate Fire Walker's energy signature. But who?"

Washu thought over that troubling idea. "No," she concluded. "The forms matched too well... but, how? And who?"

A creeping sensation passed through her small body as she concentrated on the problem without the multiple distractions that had been plaguing her recently. She considered all of the possibilities. The creeping feeling turned into a cold one as ran across an idea that she had before, but didn't pursue. "It's the only one that makes sense...," she pondered aloud. "But if what I suspect is true, then we're all in big trouble."

Deciding that appearing like a child would not help the situation, Washu's small body expanded into her adult form. "I have to convince the Admiral of the seriousness of the situation, Tenchi can help in that by getting me in to see the Emperor." She said to herself as she sat up from the floating pillow that was she chair and started for the door to her lab. "They must listen! I'll find a way to make them understand."

On that proclamation, she opened the door and was greeted by the sounds of fighting.

-----------

Ranma straightened at the sound of her name. "Um..."

Tenchi swallowed hard and repeated. "Ranma?" He then absently ducked a body being hurdled his way.

"Damn," Ranma sighed out. _"I just can't catch a break. I wanted to tell him, but not like this," _she thought as she leapt over Sailor Jupiter as she skidded under her. Jupiter got up from where she was thrown and rejoined the fray.

"Hi, er... sorry about this," Ranma said sheepishly, ignoring the fight around her in favor of Tenchi. "Now you know want I wanted to tell you."

Tenchi stared at the Senshi before him and watched as if a veil had been lifted between them. "Ranma! It is you!" He said more firmly as recognition worked its way into his brain. He then leaned to one side as a blue uniformed man sailed past him on his way to landing that would lead to unconsciousness. "It is you!"

"Heh. Uumm.. surprise?" Ranma said in the same sheepish tone, deflecting a few pot shots that came her way with her sword, hardly noticing what she was doing. "I wanted to tell you, but things gotta a little out of control."

Tenchi looked hurt for a moment, then looked at Ranma with a neutral expression. "Why didn't you tell me to begin with?"

"You'd think I was crazy," Ranma defended. "I was going to show before you got kidnapped."

Ranma blocked an attack from a guard. Irritated at the interruption, she fired off a small ball of energy that sealed the door to the room preventing more renforcements from entering. "Say... what's going on?" Ranma asked with her hands on her hips while cocking her head to one side. "Why are you fighting for the people who kidnapped you?"

"Umm...," Tenchi began only to be sidelined by dodging debris from the fray going on around them. "That's kinda complicated."

Ranma knocked out two guards that tried to double team her without batting an eye. She crossed her arms and made a slight pout. "I have the time."

"Well... you see," Tenchi began, "I'm descended from... ahhh, a royal line."

Ranma raised an eyebrow, but said nothing for a moment while giving Tenchi a measured look. Both ignored the combat that continued around them. "A royal line?"

"I'm sorta third in line to the throne of the Jurian Empire," Tenchi explained lamely. "Umm... That's an intergalactic empire."

"So you're like a prince or something?" Ranma asked as a loud explosion rang out throughout the room. "Why didn't you say something?"

Tenchi deflected a few pieces of debris that flew his way without thought. "You'd think I was crazy."

"Heh. Right," Ranma agreed.

Among the din of the surrounding fight, a silent moment was shared between the two.

Tenchi blink-blinked as the chaos seeped into their moment. "Let's stop the fighting first and then finish talking about this," he proposed.

Ranma looked around and realized that the fighting was now down to the senshi mopping up the last of the opposition. Uranus and Neptune, along with Saturn had accounted for the bulk of the unconscious and wounded men on the floor with Mercury surprisingly managing to make some impressive victories for herself. Moon was standing over the unconscious form of the elaborately dressed man that Ranma just realized was related to Tenchi.

"Ahhh... good plan," Ranma agreed. Determined to find out exactly what in the hell was going on, she leaked some chi into her voice and bellowed loudly. "Okay everyone stop right now!"

The chi enhanced voice of Ranma shook the room and reverberated throughout every person. The room instantly froze and were greeted to the sight of Tenchi closely standing side-by-side Ranma.

"Now," Tenchi began, speaking for the pair. "What's going on?"

-----------

The watcher scowled, then smiled. _"Well, it was entertaining while it lasted. Who would've have known the little fool would get attached to one of THOSE creatures."_

She screwed her face up into a smirk. _"Heh. It is good to know that someone of my stature can be surprised. Ahh... mortals - how unpredictable. I guess there's no choice - I'll have to take matters firmly into my own hands."_

----------

After much sorting and explanation, a quiet fell over the room that dragged on for minutes. "So Ranma," Tenchi finally said, "you're Sailor Sun?"

Ranma looked rather embarrassed for some reason as she meekly nodded. She looked at Tenchi with a now quizzical look, cocked her head to one side. "And your a prince from outer space?"

Tenchi scratched the back of his head nervously. "Well... yeah... kinda. Er... yes I am."

Both youths stood and stared uncomfortably at each other for a few heartbeats. It didn't help that everyone else was looking at them. Ryoko had recovered from her nap and Ayeka was standing beside her staring daggers at the redheaded senshi that seemed too familiar with Tenchi.

"Er, listen," Ranma said in an uncertain voice. "Can we go somewhere and... talk?"

"We're not letting you out of our sight with him," Ayeka said firmly. "There is strong evidence that you destroy-"

"I didn't destroy nothing!" Ranma shot back with much venom. "What about your robots or whatever the hell you call them dropping down on Tokyo and trying to kill-"

"We had nothing to to with that," Emperor Azusa said while rubbing a sore spot on his arm. "I do not deny that those powersuits resemble ours, but I can't explain how they got here."

"This is all ridiculous," the Admiral said in a huff. "We have the people - especially that redhead," he motioned toward Ranma with a hand, "who were behind the deaths of several thousand Jurian Naval personal and we're letting them make excuses for themselves. I just should call security and throw the lot of them in the brig."

Ranma opened her mouth for a retort, but was beaten to the punch by another redhead.

"You are an idiot," Washu said, rapidly losing patience with the self-important officer. "You have the barest idea what you're up against. So SHUT UP!"

The officer was taken aback for a brief moment before flying into an indignant rage. "Listen here, this is my ship, I'll run it any way I see fit. You get in my way I'll have you in the brig as well, do you understand?"

"And you listen here you overstuffed, pompous ass. 'That redhead' controls enough power to wipe this entire fleet out without breaking a sweat," Washu shot back, irritated with dealing with the one track officer. "I was part of the team that helped put her together - I know what she can do and believe me, you and your fleet are no match."

"Impossible. The fleet gathered here-"

"Would be like a gnat," Washu interrupted sharply. "I know what's going on, you don't. So shut up and maybe the Emperor will let you keep your commission. Interrupt me again and I'll see to it your cleaning toilets for the rest of your career."

"What do you mean 'team that put her together'?" Sailor Moon asked, stopping anything more the Admiral had to say.

"Well you see-," she began.

"Then there is the DNA evidence," Mercury chimed in, addressing the Admiral. "The slight differences of the pilot's DNA match yours... Jurai's?... to a tee. There is no doubt of the origins."

"Yes, yes, yes," the other redhead of the group said with arms flapping in exasperation at being continually side-tracked. "What everyone has said is true. Nothing is adding up as it should and I haven't had the time to look into every aspect of it, but there is a logical explanation."

"Well if you have one, we'd love to hear it," Neptune said dryly.

The redheaded scientist nodded and opened her mouth to speak. She paused in thought. "First, let me establish my credentials," she said as she turned to address Sailor Pluto. "Hello Wind Walker," she greeted the much taller women. "It's been a long time."

Sailor Pluto blinked inn confusion and studied the other women. _"Wind Walker?"_ she wondered. _"Wind Walker? I haven't been called that since..." _Sailor Pluto kept her mask of coolness as she studied the redheaded women before her. "I'm sorry, " Sailor Pluto said cautiously. "Have we met?"

Washu nodded. "Yes, a very long time ago."

Pluto's face wrinkled as she studied the woman. Ranma who was watching the entire exchange grasped onto a fragment of a dream she had. "Washu...," Ranma whispered. "Tech Master Washu."

Pluto shot a look at the smaller redhead, then at the taller one. "Tech Master Washu? Tech Master Washu!" Pluto said as recognition set in. "How?"

"It's a long story Pluto, and there will be plenty of time for explanations later," Washu said with a wave of her hand. She looked over to Ranma, who was standing comfortably close to Tenchi, and smiled. "I just wanted to establish some credibility among you."

"Ranma, you know this woman?" Mars asked cautiously.

Ranma nodded. "Yes, I remember her from a dream I had... the one where I'm going into the Infusion tubes."

"You remember that?" Washu asked wide eyed not realizing that she had side-tracked herself. "You seemed to retain more of your memories than expected considering the number of times you must have been reincarnated."

Ranma shrugged. "Bits and pieces. Tenchi and I have been talking about what happened. He knows we had nothing to do with the destruction of the fleet..."

"... and I can say that we had nothing to do with the attacks," Tenchi interjected.

"... and I believe him," Ranma said flatly.

"How can you believe him?" Mars asked in disbelief. "I know that he's your boyfriend but-"

"I believe him," Ranma repeated just as flatly before continuing. "Moon, do you remember when I asked you what do you use as a guide?" Ranma asked. "Do you remember what you told me?"

Sailor moon nodded. "Yes," she answered. "I told you we use our hearts."

"Well my heart tells me that Tenchi and the rest are telling the truth," Ranma said. "They have no reason to attack us - there's no motivation."

"How about the destruction of their fleet?" Mercury asked. "What happened then?"

Washu opened her mouth to answer the question, but was interrupted.

Ranma shook her head. "I don't know," she admitted. "I do know that, like Washu said, nothing's adding up or making sense."

Mercury furrowed her brow, causing her eyes to narrow. This didn't go unnoticed by the rest of the occupants of the room. Washu was about to capitalize on the lull in the conversation to state her theory, but was beaten to the punch.

"What?" Moon prodded before Washu come get a word out.

"I think I know what's going on, I'm trying to find the right word," Mercury answered. "What's that word... it's on the tip of my tongue. You know where someone sets someone else up for a crime? Damn. it's on the tip of my tongue."

"Framed?" Neptune offered.

"Yes! That's it," Mercury said excitedly as she latched onto the word. "Framed! From what I heard from Ranma's boyfriend and what I know... I think we were all framed."

"Well, if someone is setting us up to fight," Pluto said. "Who and why?"

"I have a theory that explains everythi-" Washu began quickly, only to be cut off.

"You don't know how disappointing this is," a voice rang out loudly in the room. Everyone blinked at each other before it dawned on them that none of them were the one that spoke.

When this was realized, everyone in the room spun as one to face the speaker. She was short - short enough that she reminded Ranma of a certain Amazon elder. What alarmed Ranma was the fact the this stranger was able to get there without Ranma detecting her. That alarm went to "full out battle mode" when Ranma realized that she couldn't really detect anything from the old woman standing before her with any of her Senshi senses.

The stranger leaned heavily on her staff and sighed. "All of you were supposed to be fighting now. I expected carnage and destruction. I was especially expecting more out of you," she said while shooting a disapproving look at Ranma. "You are most disappointing."

"Who are you?" Sailor Moon asked. "And why have you done this?

The old woman cocked her head and smirked. "You know, no matter where I go, you always seem the same... and as far as why? Heh, I did it for her." She finished with a hard look at Ranma.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ranma asked while building up power. _"Whoever this is, she's good at either masking her power or using just a little efficiently,"_ she thought. _"I gotta stay sharp."_

"Well I must be going now," the woman said suddenly, ignoring Ranma's question. "And I had as much fun as I can get from this, but don't worry - I'll be back. Once I find an amusing way to end all of your miserable lives."

On that, the Mistress faded from sight - Ranma was on high alert for anything and captured the Mistress' mode of transportation.

_"She's tearing through time and space like I do,"_ she concluded before announcing, "There's no way I'm letting that psycho get away."

In one swift move, Ranma leapt across the room, stabbed her sword into the closing tear in space/time, widened it and followed the Mistress to wherever she went.

"Sun wait!" Sailor Moon called out, but it was too late. Sailor Sun - Ranma - was gone.

----------

Ranma twisted and turned as she followed on the heels of the escaping Mistress. Determination filled her as she focused on the obvious trail that the Mistress left behind in the fabric space/time.

_"There's no way in hell I'm letting that psycho get away,"_ Ranma repeated to herself as she followed. Being led by her emotions, it never occurred to her to wonder why following the Mistress was as incredibly easy as it was, since she couldn't detect her before.

As Ranma approached the other end of the wormhole, she summoned her sword and prepared for an ambush. Stepping through, she quickly got into a defensive stance and raised her sword to guard against any attack. Ranma was disappointed. She expected to be attacked immediately the moment she stepped through. The wormhole closed behind her with an audible 'pop' and she was left alone on a barren world.

Studying her surroundings for any trace of her prey, Ranma took in the bleakness of it all. She found herself in a jagged, mountainous area with not even a hint of vegetation. The mountains were weather worn and craggy, shadows dropped sharply in the intense sunlight.

At the foot of the mountain were the weathered, stone remains of a a temple-like structure. The roof was gone, half the columns had fallen, and those that still stood were heavily eroded on one side. The age of this structure, Ranma could only guess at.

Putting her natural curiosity aside, Ranma extended her senses to locate the Mistress and quickly scanned the globe she found herself on. What she discovered alarmed her. _"There's no life,"_ she thought in mild panic. _"No life anywhere."_

A cold chill ran through Ranma as she poked another hole in the dam of her self control governing her powers. She feed this into the scan. "_She's not getting away from me,"_ was the determined thought that justified her increase in power.

Extending further out, Ranma tapped into the "flow" or "rhythm" of the alien universe, what she found appalled her further. _"There's no life anywhere - in the whole universe," _she concluded as a deeper chill ran through her. _"There are traces that life was here, but all the life force is gone. What happened?"_

"Welcome," a voice greeted Ranma. "So glad you could make it."

Ranma spun around, returned to a defensive stance and raised her sword preparing for the expected attack. The Mistress was standing, not twenty feet from her, near the remains of one of the columns. She was regarding Ranma with deep eyes that sparkled with mirth.

Ranma studied the Mistress with all the power she had in her senses and couldn't really find any details. What Ranma was able to tell came mostly from what she could see and that wasn't much. The Mistress stood in plain sight and seemed to study Ranma with those mirthful eyes that made Ranma feel most unclean. That's when Ranma noticed it.

In seemed like the rippling in the air, not to unlike what one would see coming off the pavement on a hot, summer day. This one surrounded the Mistress.

_"There's a... small ripple event around her," _Ranma thought as the staring contest between the two women continued._ "I've seen it before... it's..."_ Ranma then mentally slapped herself, angry that she should have realized it sooner. "I can see that you have a disguise field around you," Ranma called out. "Now show yourself you coward."

The old woman was unmoved by the taunt. Her smile just widened and she leaned against her staff more heavily. No matter how much effort Ranma put behind her Senshi senses, she couldn't penetrate the disguise field. The old woman chuckled.

"What the hell so funny?" Ranma asked outraged at feeling slighted.

"You are," came the snide reply. "Tell me, how does it feel to be some mortal's lapdog? Their slave?"

Ranma was confused by the question, but the tone that it was delivered in made her shake with rage. "What in the hell are you talking about!" an angry and confused Ranma asked. "I'm no one's slave!"

"How does it feel to be torn away from the people you love? Your family?" the old woman asked. "You never really had a choice in your life. I bet you didn't know that Queen Serenity was leading you around by the nose."

"Queen Serenity is dead!" Ranma said sharply. "She-"

"Dead like you were? And are now?" the old woman cut Ranma off. "If you want proof that she was around and pulling your chain, I can think of none better."

Ranma mind froze, her mind reeled at the suggestion.

_"Could she be right?"_ her mind raced, before Ranma shook her head. _"Idiot! She's trying to mess with me."_

Ranma took in a deep breath of air and address the Mistress again. "That doesn't matter right now. Right now all that matters is that you almost caused a war that would have left millions of innocent people dead."

Silence fell as the Mistress cocked her head and seemed to contemplate something. "And this upsets you?" she finally asked in a confused way.

Ranma stood in stun silence, looking at the rippling form of the Mistress. "Of course it upsets me! It would upset any sane being!"

The Mistress chuckled.

"What the hell's so funny!" Ranma asked, exasperated at her foe.

"You are," the Mistress replied. "You already asked that, remember?"

Ranma seethed. The Mistress was hitting all the right buttons that angered Ranma, but she was determined not to lose control of her frail emotions. She did that once and it nearly cost the lives of innocent people. Ranma steeled herself before narrowing her eyes as the shadow resumed its chuckling before falling into silence once more.

"As far as my motives go," the Mistress said with all seriousness, "I did everything for you. To help you."

This answer was unexpected.

Ranma opened her mouth to say something, but snapped in shut audibly. "Wh-what do you mean by that?" Ranma finally demanded. "How could endangering everyone around me help me?"

The Mistress sighed. "To make you realize what you are. What you truly can be," the Mistress said as if she were addressing a five year old. "You shouldn't care about those creatures, they are far too beneath you."

"Creatures? What creatures?" Ranma asked in a mixture of confusion, frustration over what was said and her inability to pierce the Mistress' disguise field. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know," the Mistress said in her mocking way. "The Senshi, humans in general... your lover boy."

Silence fell between the two woman as anger boiled inside Ranma. "Who in the hell do you think you are!" Ranma roared indignantly. "God or something!"

Ranma could see the shadow cock her head to one side.

"As a matter of fact, that is exactly what I am," the old woman said as cold as death. "I am a God..."

Ranma heard the capital 'G' in the word 'god' and her anger evaporated at the other woman's proclamation and changed to controlled confusion.

"... as you can be."

-------------

"Have you found her yet?" Sailor Moon asked frantically as Sailor Pluto focused her attention on the Garnet Orb on her staff.

"Almost," Pluto answered. "Thank goodness Sun is still wearing the tracker, otherwise it would impossible to find her."

"What is the tracker tuned to?" Washu asked as she waved her hand and two flat panels appeared in mid-air.

"Transferring the information now," Pluto answered as she waved her hand in an complex pattern.

Washu nodded as she typed quickly. "Gonna need some help here," she muttered to herself as she summoned a marble-sized orb. The small ball floated free of Washu's hand and hovered in mid-air. A ghostly image seem to grow from it and the form of a elaborately robed woman slowly solidified, but like a phantom, the image remained transparent.

"Tsunami," Washu said. "We need your help in tracking Ranma."

"What's the situation?" the ghostly form asked.

"She's chasing after the Mistress," Washu answered as see scanned for a trace of Ranma's tracker. "If what I suspect is true, she's in big trouble."

The rest of the room were helpless spectators as the drama unfolded further. Pluto, Washu, and the newcomer were busy trying to locate the wayward Senshi.

"What do you suspect?" Moon asked.

"I think the only thing that explains all the variables is-"

"I think I got a trace," Pluto interrupted with intensity as she tried to focus on the sliver of a signal among the mass of background noise.

"Where?" Tsunami asked as she floated over to where Pluto was.

"Here," Pluto said as she pointed into the halo of light that surrounded the top portion of her staff. Tsunami studied the display and crossed back over to Washu who was still having difficulties.

"Look in this sector, that's where Pluto traced her," Tsunami said as she pointed to the corresponding point on Washu's floating display with a transparent finger.

"Got it," Washu said sharply as her fingers danced on the keyboard. As she worked, she muttered, "Ranma's crossed the dimensional boundaries of several different universes, several times, that's why it was so hard to trace her even with the tracker."

"Where is she?" Tenchi asked as he leaned forward for a better look.

"It is hard to explain unless you are well versed in fifth dimensional physics," the ghostly form of Tsumami replied. "But it's safe to say that she is far from here."

"Got a picture!" Pluto announced as she widened the viewing area with her staff. Washu stepped forward and helped fine-turned the settings, making the picture focus into razor sharpness.

"Oh my...," someone said.

-------------

"Enough!" Ranma said in a commanding way, irritated at the conversation. "Come out and face me as your truly are - or you too afraid?"

The Mistress giggled like a schoolgirl as she looked at Ranma. "Very well. If you think you can handle the truth," she said more mockingly.

The short, huddled figure of the Mistress turned solid and wavered as the disguise field was deactivated. The wavering of the field created a silhouette of the Mistress' true form as it morphed into a woman about a half a head taller than Ranma. And all that could be seen from the outline of the woman's body was...

... she wore a fuku.

"You're a Senshi," Ranma said in stunned amazement.

"Oh, I'm more than that," the disembodied voice of the Mistress said as the swirling air around her vaporized and the details of her true self sharpened.

---------------

"Impossible," Sailor Moon said firmly as she viewed the scene.

"No. It isn't. It makes perfect sense," Washu said evenly. "It explains everything."

---------------

Ranma's mind reeled further at the sight before her. She took an involuntary step backward, away from the woman who smirked so knowingly at her. Ranma deepened her scan to be sure no deception was being made - she found none. The fully revealed woman appeared to be in her mid-twenties and stood a good two inches taller than Ranma. The Mistress' teal fuku contrasted nicely with her long, flowing, red locks of hair that cascaded down past her shoulders.

Ranma's most feared nightmare had fully materialized before her.

"What's the matter?" the fully revealed Mistress asked coyly. "Don't tell me I scare you."

Ranma stood frozen in her effort to comprehend what she was seeing and feeling. There was no doubt that this was the true form of the Mistress. "It's impossible," she muttered through her shock senses.

"Come now, Sailor Sun," the Mistress continued in the same mocking tone she used earlier. "You of all people should know for every time line, there is a universe - a dimension."

"You're-," Ranma stumbled out. "Me."

The Mistress nodded her head, her red hair swaying with the motion.

"In all the endless universes, in all the tens of thousands of years, I've only found one other like me," she said while keeping the smirk on her face. She then brightened it into a smile. "I guess, in a way, that makes us like sisters."

All Ranma could do for a reply was to stare dumbly at the women who appeared to be a slightly older version of herself.

----------

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	33. University Part 14 and Epilogue

For this last chapter, I would like to thank Josh Temple and Ozzallos for looking over my early drafts.

As always, I'd like to give a big, special Texas-size thanks to Ghost in the Machine for pre-reading this and many of my other past chapters - this is on top of putting up with me this long. Ghost in the Machine's help has been invaluable and it cannot be understated. His trusty baseball bat and microscope have been a huge help.

Constructive criticism is always welcome.

I don't own any of these characters or situations. They belong to someone else. Also this is done purely for fun, not profit. Any resemblance to persons living, dead, yet to be born, or visiting from other dimensions is purely coincidental. I'm doing this for fun.

Boldly going where others had gone before and meekly going where few have been.

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--------------

University Part 14 and Epilogue

--------------

"Would someone mind telling me what in the hell is going on?" Sailor Mars asked sharply.

Sailor Moon raised a hand, stalling anything more that Sailor Mars, or any of the other scouts, had to say. She turned her attention to the redheaded scientist that was studying some readouts. "You know us," Sailor Moon stated.

Washu nodded absently, making her spiky red hair wave. Behind Sailor Moon, Sailor Pluto also nodded.

"How?"

Washu sighed. "I would love to explain the whole thing to you, but right now, we may be running out of time."

"What do you mean and what does this have to do with Ranma?" Tenchi asked after regaining his wits. "Why are there two of her?"

"FireWalker is the product of years of research and development into bio-weaponry," Tsunami answered. "Like the rest of the Senshi that were developed to protect the realm, she is able to use a celestial body to focus energy and channel it."

"Am I to understand that you made these people," Ayeka said as she motioned to the fukued girls "- to serve as some type of super weapon?"

"Yes," Washu answered, "but FireWalker is unique-"

"FireWalker?" Tenchi interrupted.

"Ranma," Washu said before continuing. "She was the last and most advanced Senshi created."

"FireWalker's capabilities have never been fully explored," Tsunami added. "Her power curve never reached a plateau."

"But why are there two of them?"

Washu sighed. "Pluto could explain it better, but with every timeline, there are different universes - dimensions - that exist. Apparently this other Sailor Sun is from another universe."

Admiral Karikachi studied the images that were coming from another universe. "So this other... person tried to start a war between us?"

"Apparently so," Sailor Mercury deadpanned, irked by the officer's grasp of the obvious.

"Now there are two Sailor Sun's..." Tenchi thought aloud before declaring, "We've got to help her!"

"We can't fight against that!" Washu said sharply while waving to the scene unfolding on the view screen. "Do you realize how powerful she is? If this other Sailor Sun is even half as powerful as ours, we can't fight her!"

"It doesn't matter. We can't aband-"

"I'm not going to argue," Washu said as sharply as before, cutting off any debate. "Our only hope is that FireWalker-"

"Her name is Ranma," Tenchi snapped back at Washu. "I don't care if she was some pet project of yours from the past. She is a person, not a thing."

Washu remained silent for a few heartbeats as emotions ran high. "I'm sorry," she offered evenly. "Our only hope is for - Ranma to pull it together, but even then we might be doomed."

"Why's that? What have you done to her?"

"We only did what we were asked," snapped Washu.

"What are you talking about?" Ryoko asked in irritation. "What in the hell is going on and who are these people?"

"I do think that a fuller explanation is in order," Azusa, the Jurai Emperor, said.

Washu and the ghostly Tsunami shared a look before gazing back at their audience.

"All right," Washu said wearily. "It all started over forty thousand years ago..."

----------

Ranma studied her older self. Everything was identical except the her twin had the symbol of the Sun on her forehead with two 'solar flares' framing her face and stopping at her cheeks. The symbols glowed with power.

So much power that Ranma backed up involuntarily.

"What's the matter?" the Mistress asked. "Don't tell me that I frighten you."

Ranma who was at stage two, moved to stage three. Super Sailor Sun faced off the Mistress.

"I not afraid of anything!" Ranma declared as she flexed her newly formed wings of flame. "Especially you."

Sailor Sun laughed loudly. "Oh, how marvelously arrogant," she said with a chuckle. "You'll be so much fun to play with."

Ranma directed more power to her shielding. "Play with? What do you think this is? A game?" she asked.

"Why of course it is," Sun answered off-handedly. "It's game a I play all the time."

Ranma blinked at her fuku wearing double. Sailor Sun looked back with excess mirth.

"You don't understand now," Sailor Sun said re-assuredly. "But by the time I'm through with you, you will."

Ranma took a defensive stance as she felt Sailor Sun's energy spike. Ranma fed more energy to her shields and focused her scans on the woman before her. The flares of energy that surrounded Ranma increased in number as did their intensity. Her wings brightened and pulsed.

Sailor Sun looked at the display impassively. "So much work to do," she said with a sigh. "Evolving you will take some doing... but I think it will be worth it."

"What in the hell are you talking about?" Ranma spouted off.

Sailor Sun stood with her arms crossed and looked at Ranma as if she were a simpleton. "It would be easier," she held out a hand, "to show you," she closed her hand and her sword formed. Without a beat after forming her sword, Sailor Sun attacked wildly.

Dodging, Ranma lashed out and blocked the swing with her wings as she summoned her own sword. Ranma's wing flared at the contact and slowed the sword strike as it passed through it. _"This is insane,_" Ranma thought as she brought up her sword to intercept a strike by Sailor Sun. _"She's a Senshi - she shouldn't be like this."_

"It has been fun," Sailor Sun said absently as she swung at Ranma again, "and slightly disappointing. But that just shows: no matter how much you plan, the unexpected always can happen."

"Why are you doing this?" Ranma implored as she blocked again and performed a spin kick in one motion. The kick connected solidly, but only managed to knock Sailor Sun back a few yards.

"I told you. I did it for you," Sailor Sun answered. "I did it all for you."

"I don't need anything from you, especially if it endangers everyone around me."

"Says the blind woman who needs to see," Sailor Sun quipped. "You are still very blind - I'm going to help you see."

"Can't you just tell me?" Ranma jibbed as she deflected a thrust. "It'd be a hell'va lot easier."

"Oh no, little one," Sailor Sun smirked. "Some things need to be experienced."

Ranma felt a spike of anger within her. "And endangering innocent lives - killing innocent people justifies it?"

"Of course," Sailor Sun snorted. "It's not like anything important was lost."

Ranma locked blades and pushed Sailor Sun back. "Not important! We're talking lives here!"

"So? What are you getting so upset about? I've killed more in my life than the petty few here and I expect to kill more in the future," Sailor Sun stated matter-of-factly. "So what of it? Trust me, it's not as important as you think."

"Not as important as -" Ranma voice trailed off as she stared at her other self before her. Ranma came to the realization: Sailor Sun was very dangerous and homicidal; not to mention probably insane. There was only one thing that Ranma could think of to deal with someone of Sailor Sun's power range.

_"I'll have to kill her," _Ranma concluded._ "I'm going to have to strike hard and fast."_

Focused now with grim determination, Ranma began cycling through the list of available attacks she had on hand, and was briefly surprised to find more listed than what was normally available. Evidently certain protocols were built in that allowed her certain attacks at the current power level. Being in her Super form - the high end of her Super form - afforded Ranma many options she hadn't explored yet. In the back of her mind, she quickly sorted through all the weapons at her disposal and a powerful one came to the fore - one that didn't need complex unlocking codes to use. She prepared, charged up, and readied her attack while laying a combo of kicks and back-handed hits onto Sailor Sun as a distraction. Ranma wanted to deliver it point-blank so there would be no mistake or miss.

Ranma did a spin kick that would have taken the head off a normal person. "Gee, you suck," Ranma taunted as Sailor Sun regained her feet. "A kid would have been able to dodge that."

Sailor Sun retaliated furiously, making Ranma block a swing of her enemy's sword. Using the block to step inside her guard, Ranma laid five to six hundred punches into Sailor Sun's mid-section. The insane Senshi let out several "oofs" as she doubled over slightly. Ranma smiled at knowing, as a martial artist, Sailor Sun sucked. Ranma could tell that her opponent had been trained, but had become too dependent on her powers. It was Sailor Sun's power that made her hard to fight. For Ranma, hitting her - even in super form - was like hitting the side of a battleship. Ranma's self repair made dealing with the damage she was doing to her hand easier to cope with, but it wasn't really doing any damage to Sailor Sun.

Sailor Sun dropped her sword and grappled with Ranma, succeeding in grabbing hold of Ranma's forearms as she attempted to... do what, Ranma wasn't sure of. Ranma smirked to herself as Sailor Sun performed such a clumsy attack, it put her into a position that Ranma could use one of her prepared attacks. While not as powerful as what had destroyed the Protectors' universe, it was powerful enough to never have been used during her life in the Silver Millennium. Forcing one hand high and the other low, Ranma had Sailor Sun between her outstretched hands.

Right where she wanted her.

"_Super Nova_," Ranma whispered.

From space, the dead Earth of Sailor Sun's universe hung peacefully with its dirty brown land masses and lifeless oceans. Clouds floated above the barren landscape, their shadows falling and dancing over mountains and seashores. On a large island that was adjacent to a much larger land mass, a tiny, bright light pierced the twilight of the dead world.

One instant the light was nothing more than a pinprick against the whole body of the planet, the next the light was swallowing not only the Earth, but the Moon as well. Traveling at the speed of light, the released energy from Ranma's attack radiated outward, destroying everything in its path.

A little over eight minutes later the expanding sphere of energy reached the center of the solar system and tore at the star. The outer layers of the star were immediately blown away by the shock wave and the sun took on the appearance of a gigantic comet with gases trailing away into space. The core of the sun held out against the onslaught for what seemed like minutes before succumbing and adding its mass to the expanding debris field. The halo of destruction rocketed outward, eliminating many of the outer planets before the energy was spread out enough to be considered spent.

The Solar System in this universe ceased to exist and was replaced with a halo of hot, glowing gasses and dust. The new nebula continued to spread outward.

Ranma hung in the vast emptiness of space that was eerily aglow with the aftermath of the attack. Around her there was nothing - the force of the energy she released having pretty much swept any debris away with it. She sighed.

_"It's over. Nothing could have survived that," _she thought wearily. She looked around at the glowing nothingness of space. _"Nothing."_

She then blinked as alarm bells rang loudly in her head and her senses screamed as she spun to face her double.

"Not bad, try one of mine," Sailor Sun said mockingly.

Ranma's world turned white with pain.

--------

When the universe faded back into existence for Ranma, she found herself tumbling uncontrollably and in pain. Great pain. Pain filled much of what she sensed as spikes of power coursed through her body, doing what, she did not know or care. Feeling more than worse for wear, she tried to move her right arm in an attempt to feel how bad the damage was and found that it would not move.

Painfully cocking her head to one side, she managed to raise her arm and examined it. Everything below the elbow was gone.

"My arm!" she tried to screamed, but nothing came out but bubbles of blood. Waves of nausea hit her as what was left of her one lung contracted pitifully in painful spasms. Forcing herself to regain some semblance of thought, Ranma watched the blackened stump that was her right arm float before her as it leaked blood out into space. Once outside her personal energy field, the blood vaporized from the hot gases that lingered from the newly destroyed Solar System.

Closing her eyes, she forced her her left arm to move and used it to feel her torso. With sickening realization, she discovered more of herself was missing. Fearful at what she might find, she easily resisted the urge to try and look down.

Panic filled her along with the overwhelming urge to vomit. She literally didn't have the guts for the later, but her head spun on the former.Uncounted moments ticked by before a great tide of peacefulness swept over her.

"I'm going to die," Ranma concluded somewhat calmly.

Another spike of power surged through her, making her arch what was left of her back and her eyes open. She watched as lights danced before her eyes. No. The specks of light weren't the figment of a dying brain's imagination, they were real. The specks danced around the stump of her arm, making it glow before collecting into a larger mass of light that flowed out to where the rest of her arm should be. Ranma couldn't see it, but she felt the same thing happening to other parts of her body and watched in sick fascination as the bits of light danced, swarmed, and then solidified into her arm. She blinked.

Flexing her newly formed fingers, Ranma dared looked down on herself and found that she was completely intact, including her uniform._ "What in the heck?_" she thought in wonder._ "I just put myself back together?"_

"Good," an amused voice said, causing Ranma to whip her head around. She didn't even bother to wonder how she could 'hear' in a vacuum. "You can do that too. I afraid the fun was over before it began."

"Wha-" was as far as Ranma got before she was engulfed in more white pain.

--------

It was later, how much later Ranma didn't know and as much pain as she was in, she didn't care. Once again and what seemed like the umpteenth time, the universe faded back into existence.

_"Oh god, oh god, oh god,"_ was all that was repeated in Ranma's mind as the Mistress - the Sailor Sun of this dead universe - played a perverse game of cat and mouse with her. Sailor Sun would hit Ranma with a very powerful attack, what, Ranma wasn't exactly sure of, blowing parts of Ranma's body off. Sailor Sun would allow Ranma to rebuild her body and just before Ranma could fully recover and muster any kind of defense, hit her again with another powerful attack. Sailor Sun repeated the process, upping the amount of pain that was being inflicted.

Ranma was a helpless as a rag doll in the jaws of a mongrel.

_"I gotta think! Not thinking is what got me into this mess,"_ Ranma thought as she tried to focus pass the pain. She was dismayed that she hadn't gotten over her cockiness like she thought. _"I'm so stupid, I never think!" _She tried to breathe, but discovered that there were no lungs. _"She doesn't want me dead, or she would have done that already."_

Ranma's thoughts were broken as searing pain coursed through her.

"Ahh... Ahhh... Ahhh..." escaped her lips as the pain waved through her. She was greeted by the sounds of playful laughter coming from her tormentor._ "I gotta... suppress my powers,"_ Ranma thought desperately. _"If she thinks I'm close to dying, she might ease up and give me time to put together some type of counter... at least erect a more effective shield."_

After the last attack, Ranma concentrated on that idea. Tumbling uncontrollably through space, Ranma allowed her body to repair the most critical damage and leaving the extremities unrepaired. As carefully as she could, she bottled and concealed her power, concentrating on using it for an effective defense. The problem was that there was only so much energy to go around.

"Awww, is my poor little Senshi getting tired already?" a mockingly-concerned voice asked.

_"Control, control," _Ranma mentally repeated. "_Don't give nothing away yet."_

Ranma felt something grab her and spin her around at nauseating speeds. "Round and round you go, where you stop, nobody knows," Sailor Sun sang merrily before giggling like a school girl.

Ranma used the break to focus even more on recovering.

Suddenly Ranma spinning was halted, with equally nauseating results. Ranma felt her shoulders grasped by two impossibly strong hands. Opening her eyes, she found herself face-to-face with her other self who smiled upon her like a long lost friend. Ranma resisted the urge to try and smash that face in.

"You know, all you have to do is be my friend and I can forgive you for your stupidity," she said like a mother talking to a child. "We can have so much fun together..."

_"That's it. Keep talking_," Ranma thought.

"Why I remember a few years ago when I tortured a Sailor Moon in some other universe for... anyway, I tortured her for a long time." She paused for another bout of girlish giggles. "By the time I turned her loose, she was insane and ended up killing Sailors Mercury and Mars outright, crippling Tuxedo Mask for life, and took out a good chunk of Tokyo before Uranus and Neptune put her down."

_"Don't pay attention, keep focused," _Ranma urged herself silently to pay no mind to what Sailor Sun was saying.

"Served the bitch right," Sailor Sun said with anger etched in her tone. "They all deserve it," she half-snarled.

Ranma remained silent as she tried to pool her resources.

"You know what's was really fun? One time, in another universe, I seduced the little princess' boy toy," Sailor Sun continued on as if discussing a happy occasion. "Then I made sure that we got caught by Her Highness - and that really upset the time bitch's plans."

_"Keep working, a little longer,"_ Ranma mentally chanted as she tried to ignore Sailor Sun.

"And when the time-bitch popped in to - deal - with me," Sailor Sun continued mirthfully. "I took that time staff from her hands and you know what I did with it?" Ranma remained silent as she schooled her powers within. Outwardly her eyes had a glazed over and she appeared to be in shock.

"I can see it in your eyes that you're dying of curiosity," Sailor Sun said as she grinned at Ranma's appearance. "I'll tell you," she continued with much affection in her voice. She leaned toward Ranma's ear. "I took it and shoved it..." the rest was whispered lowly.

Ranma's eyes bulged involuntarily and she almost lost control of the collected energy she had painstakingly gathered. Sailor Sun push away slightly with a satisfied smile on her face, still gripping Ranma by the shoulders. "Isn't that funny? Pluto on a stick!"

Ranma opened her month to say something, but was cut off as Sailor Sun continued. "Do you know, that even shoved up there, it took almost three hours for her to die," she stated in a most serious manner.

Ranma was speechless for a few heartbeats. "W-why?" she asked with the sudden overpowering need to know; it also bought time. "Why did you do that?"

"Why?" Ranma's double echoed. "Why? I'll tell you why. Because I can. That's why."

Ranma shook her head in incomprehension. "I-I don't understand."

Sailor Sun cocked her head to one side and smile a warm smile. "Because I'm god and I can do whatever I want."

"But... duty is to protect the weak," Ranma stammered out, trying to keep Sailor Sun occupied.

"Protect the weak!" Sailor Sun said in mock astonishment. "Protect the weak!" she said louder. "You are more of a fool than I thought," Sailor Sun said crossly. The grip on Ranma's shoulders increased to painful levels. "The strong are there to lord over the weak, the weak are there to serve the strong."

"N-no. That's not right."

Sailor Sun looked cocked her head, before shaking it sadly. "I'm so disappointed in you. They really have you believing that crap, don't they?" She paused to let out a sigh. "After all the trouble I went through to try and help you see the truth."

Ranma shook her head as much as she dared.

"You're such an idiot," Sailor Sun almost spat. "You let lesser creatures shackle and chain you so they can use you."

"They are not creatures," Ranma wheezed out. "They're my-"

"Friends? Hardly. They are your masters, that's what they really are," Sun said while increasing the grip on Ranma's shoulders. Ranma involuntarily cried out in pain and Sailor Sun eased up. "Once I saw how that bitch-queen Serenity enslaved me, I reestablished the natural order of things," Sailor Sun explained. "When the Senshi sided against me... well I had to teach them the folly of their ways."

"Serenity wouldn't-"

"She did," Sailor Sun said coldly, shaking Ranma slightly. "She sanctioned my creation - had me taken from my family - against my will and the will of my parents - had me bowbeaten and trained until I was a good little slave. A good little slave to protect her petty little kingdom."

"No-" Ranma said lowly as she tried to shake her head, but the memories and the dreams of her past life assaulted her. An uncomfortable conflict grew inside her as she realized that there was more truth in what Sailor Sun was saying than she wanted to admit.

"I'm sure you have some memories of the same thing," Sailor Sun continued as if reading Ranma's mind. "Torn from your own family, made into a weapon - _a thing_." Sailor Sun paused a bit. "After taking what was mine, I decided to go to other universes and right the wrongs there," Sailor Sun said. "You'd be surprised at the variations that exist and how some are so much alike you can't tell the difference."

"I'm not a thing," Ranma defended as she fought to shake off her doubts and re-concentrated on repairing herself. "It doesn't matter what happened-"

"It does matter!" Sailor Sun snapped. "You were... and still are a slave," Sailor Sun said. Leaning closer to Ranma's face until they were almost nose-to-nose. "They have you so carefully chained that you don't even realize it."

Ranma just stared at Sailor Sun, her fear of the truth froze her mentally. She internally shook and re-concentrated on the task of building up power for a counter attack.

"I first started going to different universes after I was through with them here," Sailor Sun continued. "I did it because I realized that the Senshi are inherently evil. So I made it my mission to deliver righteous justice on them. Then I discovered just how much fun it was to play with them - so I decided to have fun with them along the way."

Ranma stared into Sailor Sun's eyes. It was as if there was an inescapable light of purpose burning in them.

"You know what they say about all work and no play," Sailor Sun said with a thin smile.

"You go around... killing Senshi... in other universes?" Ranma asked.

"Of course I kill them!" Sailor Sun answered loudly. "I killed them all! They're all nothing more than heartless bitches who thought of nothing more than themselves, their petty, little powers, and their damned future where they are the rulers because they let over ninety percent of the human race die. Well, I broke free from my shackles and showed them the true meaning of power."

"You're wrong..." Ranma whispered hollowly, "the Senshi in my worl-"

"They're all alike! No matter what, they're all alike!" Sailor Sun said in a near shriek, shaking Ranma like a doll. "They are! I bet they play nice to your face, make like they're your friends - treat you like family or something - all so you will do as you are told when they need something from you."

Ranma just stared. Sailor Sun's breathing was ragged from her emotional state. "So there I was," she said carefully in a calm, even voice, "having fun and handing out divine punishment at the same time and that's when it hit me."

"What? What hit you?" Ranma asked, hoping to drag things out a bit more. She was almost ready. She could feel the pool of enormous energy within, like a snake, ready to strike. In a very few seconds, Sailor Sun would get a nasty surprise.

"I'll tell you in a moment," Sailor Sun said seriously as her eyes narrowed. "But right now, I think you've got enough power built up. Here," she then thrust her hand into Ranma's chest, "let me help you do something with it."

Sailor Sun used her impaling hand and swiftly yanked downward, scooping Ranma's heart, lung, ribs and other internal organs out. She held the bloody mass of flesh up for Ranma to see before severing them and tossing them over her shoulder. All during this, Ranma screamed and writhed in the grasp of Sailor Sun's other hand. Ranma's arms flailed about, trying to escape her tormentor.

Sailor Sun must have been using something more than her hand because the pain was worse than anything that came before. The bad part was Ranma was almost ready and now energy that she had painstakingly gathered was being diverted to repair the critical damage that Sailor Sun had just inflicted. It was in the moment, almost drowned out by the pain, that Ranma realized that Sailor Sun was still toying with her.

"As I was about to say," Sailor Sun said as she used the less soiled parts of Ranma's fuku like a dish towel to wipe her bloody hand clean; all she ended up doing was smearing the blood around more. By then, Ranma's cries of pain by then subsided to a whimper and her flailing waned. Sailor Sun gripped Ranma by the shoulders again with both hands. "This is what hit me: I can do no wrong. When you're a god, whatever you decide is right. So if I decide to go back and say, heck, destroy a galaxy, why not? If I say it is right, it's right."

Ranma's mouth moved but nothing came out. Without functioning lungs yet, speaking was impossible. To took a few moments for one lung reformed enough to speak. "Y-you killed everything here," Ranma said weakly through a mouthful of blood. "You raped this universe of its life force."

"Well you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs," Sailor Sun said conversationally with a cock of her head. "I needed power to mete out divine justice, so I took it," she said oh-so-innocently. "Hell, it was mine to claim anyway, I just took what's mine. Everything in creation is mine - but I'm willing to share it with someone like you if you'll let me."

The two stared at one another for a few heartbeats as Ranma came to an inescapable and obvious conclusion. "You're nuts."

"Of course, I'd expect something like that from you," Sailor Sun said while pressing her face close to Ranma's. "Now, I'm going to a lot of trouble to try and get you to evolve, you had better appreciate this."

_"Gotta keep her talking," _Ranma thought as she desperately tried to pool her energy again, but it was too scattered in just keeping her alive to do any good offensively or otherwise. "What are you talking about?" Ranma asked as firmly as she could.

"Why, I set you up to face off a space fleet, of course," Sailor Sun said conversationally before rambling. "That's how I came to evolve. At first, I was just planning on having the Jurians invade Earth and kill the Senshi for me - it's always fun to watch ants fight you know - but anyway, once I found out about you, I put a lot of work in changing things a bit to help you evolve."

"Evolve?" Ranma echoed. Inside, she was scared. All her efforts to gather enough energy to strike were all for nothing. Her hopes began to fade as her energy just leveled off. "What-"

Sailor Sun interrupted with a shrugged her shoulders. "I evolved when I faced off the Dark Kingdom's space fleet. I had hoped it would work for you, but your lover boy screwed up my plans." She paused again and wore a thoughtful look on her face. "You know, I'm going to have to do something extra-special to him for the trouble he has caused."

"No," Ranma said more firmly than she imagined, given her state. Ranma's emotions were starting to get the better of her again and the thought of Tenchi in danger amplified those feelings. These feelings triggered something within her and she felt a spike of power course through her uncontrollably and build quickly. Where it came from, Ranma didn't know or particularly care. If Sailor Sun noticed, she didn't show it.

"Better yet," Sailor Sun smirked at the beaten redheaded Senshi. "After you evolve... or I break you," she merrily continued in a sing-song manner, "I'll have you do it for me."

"No," Ranma repeated with finality. "Never." In that one instant of clarity and out of nowhere, Ranma found the power she needed and unleashed an attack. Ranma turned the world around her white with power, instead of being on the receiving end this time, she was on the delivery.

Sailor Sun was blown away from Ranma by the sheer force of Ranma's attack. The energy swirled around and tore chunks of flesh from the insane redhead as she shrieked in pain. Sailor Sun stopped her motion through space and quickly charged the still recovering Ranma.

"You little bitch, I actually felt that!" Sailor Sun raged as both her arms and parts of her torso quickly reformed. She summoned her sword and started swinging away wildly at Ranma. "I'm trying to help you and this is the thanks I get!"

Ranma had just barely repaired the last of the damage that was inflicted on her and began dodging for her life. _"She recovered too fast," _Ranma thought as she blocked a sweep of a sword with her bracers. The blade dug into them and drew blood. _"I gotta do something to take her out for good."_

Ranma launched a few Solar Flares that would have vaporized several good-sized asteroids for cover and she summoned her own sword.

"If you're so damned determined to be a slave, then you can be mine," Sailor Sun howled as she spun her sword around, batting the Solar Flares away like flies. Sailor Sun then focused on slicing at Ranma.

Ranma easily avoid or blocked all of Sailor Suns clumsy attempts at striking her. _"She's got the power, but not the skill," _Ranma thought. _"I have the skill, but need more power to end this."_

The two blades clashed. Explosions of energy were released with every contact that lit up the two combatants in stark contrast. The energy released left halos of light in the wake of the clash. Ranma stared at the wild, wide eyes of Sailor Sun and saw nothing but madness and hate there.

When Sailor Sun's cupped hand thrust out slightly, Ranma was prepared for the coming attack and called upon her power, taking it nearly over the edge. The energy that Sailor Sun released hit Ranma's shielding and flowed around it, leaving Ranma unscathed. Both combatants broke apart. Ranma felt a wave of intense pleasure hit her.

"Good," a suddenly calm Sailor Sun smirked. "You're starting."

Ranma didn't ponder Sailor Sun's words as she decided to go on the offensive. She spun her sword around and reformed it into a staff. Spinning the staff, she disarmed Sailor Sun with two well executed hits in the forearm and as the staff angled for her head, Ranma changed the leading edge into a razor-sharp one.

Sailor Sun's body hung in space as her decapitated head went careening off into the void.

Ranma watched as Sailor Sun's headless body glowed, then rapidly faded into nothingness. She shifted her eyes around and pulled more power into her senses. She was not going to drop her guard until she was satisfied that Sailor Sun was truly dead. Looking into the hot, glowing gases that framed their arena, Ranma detected something - what, she wasn't sure of. She tapped and pulled more power into her shielding and again felt the unmistakable sensation of thrilling pleasure out of it.

She shook her head. This was no time to be enjoying herself. After a few heartbeats, Ranma continued to scan around her and pooled more energy together as a reserve.

Sailor Sun materialized in front of Ranma as she brought her staff up instinctively and blocked a sword sweep that would have taken her head off. She spun her staff around, feeding energy into it and batted Sailor Sun away. Sailor Sun halted after a few dozen yards and smirked at the younger redhead.

"You're getting better, stronger," she said. "You're almost there."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Ranma asked across the void. She was getting irritated at the others flippant attitude.

Sailor Sun ignored the question. "Here, let's play catch," she called out as she formed a blob of glowing energy in the cup made by her hands. Suddenly the glow collapsed on itself into a dark mass and the space around it seemed to warp.

"Crap," Ranma muttered as her senses told her just what kind of "ball" Sailor Sun was about to throw. Space and time warped around the two women, the gases of the destroyed Solar System were sucked in at incredible speeds making it impossible to see and confusing to the senses. Ranma was unaffected by the immense gravitation well that formed, as she instinctively shifted slightly out of phase with the space around her. Somewhere in all the warping of space and time, Sailor Sun launched her new toy at Ranma.

_"A black hole,"_ Ranma thought as she reinforced the shielding around her. That meant tapping into her reserves as well as new sources of energy. She ignored the pleasant sensations that kept revisiting her with each draw of power. _"She just threw a freakin' black hole at me!"_

Time stood still as the black hole touched the outer shell of Ranma's protective fields. In response, Ranma warped space around the already warping space that surrounding the black hole and used it to pick it apart, making matter fling away at incredible speeds and into the depths of space. This created an even larger plume of hot gas and dust that surrounded the battling pair like an arena. As Ranma drew more mass away from the dark star, it ceased being a black hole and Ranma found herself suddenly engulfed in a new, massive star.

_"Gotta get outta here," _Ranma thought as she shrugged her power like a muscle and the blew the mass of the new star away from her, creating an even bigger nebula than before. Ranma then poured resources into her scan. _"Now where is that psycho-bitch?"_ she though.

Ranma 'heard' Sailor Sun's laughter as she materialized thirty feet off to her right. "Excellent!" she said happily as she clapped her hands like a pleased child. Ranma ignored her opponent's gleeful display and focused some of her energy between two of her fingers.

As she focused, several emotions came into play. Anger, not only toward Sailor Sun but herself for jumping into this situation without thought. In hindsight it was obvious that Sailor Sun led Ranma here to fight on her "home turf", but there was little she could do about it now. Doubt and uncertainty came into play as some of the suggestions about Ranma's past that Sailor Sun had made refused to leave the depths of her mind - and she feared how much could be true for her. Then there was fear. Fear, not for herself, but for Tenchi. She wouldn't, couldn't lose another person so close to her if she could help it. Also there was the fear of maybe this twisted parody of herself was not too far removed from what she was now.

The cocktail mixture of emotions made her reach deeper and deeper into herself to find just a bit more power of defeat Sailor Sun. Like everything else in her psyche, Ranma had erected mental walls to contain and hold herself back. Like any wall that is under constant attack from so many angles, cracks and fissures appeared before it completely crumbled and fell. Ranma felt the huge power boost and sensed that more was coming. The feeling was incredible.

_"This should distract her for a moment,"_ Ranma thought as she sent the tiny speck of energy Sailor Sun's way. The tiny, BB-sized speck collided and exploded against Sailor Sun with the force of a small nova, sending her cartwheeling across through the hot gasses of the new nebula that was created in the wake of their fight. Ranma used this time to call upon more power.

Then Ranma suddenly felt great. She felt on top of the world. Power flowed through her like warm water, making her feel detached from her surroundings. The sensation of being on a high took over and she smirked at the thought of bringing this Sailor Sun to heel. For some reason, she felt great attraction toward the thought of beating the guts out of her other self. It was like a idea that she couldn't turn loose... beating Sailor Sun wasn't good enough, Ranma wanted to torture her in kind for payback.

Ranma found that thought so appealing, that she stopped holding back and summoned up this wellspring of power and charged up her body with it. Ranma's wings glowed, throbbed and expanded with energy before shrinking and solidifying into a semitransparent state. Her bodied followed suit as her physical appearance changed to match the transparent state of her wings.

Sailor Sun recovered from Ranma's assault and smiled at the semi-transparent girl. "Good. Good!" she said as she to shifted into a form much like Ranma's. "You're almost there little one, keep it up."

Ranma ignored Sailor Sun's jibe and called forth all her power. She drew greedily from it and drank in her new-found power as in coursed hot through her being. The thought, the idea of beating Sailor Sun, filled her with a dark purpose as she charged her being further. Ranma couldn't ignore the thrilling pleasure that she was deriving from it, but kept focused on the task at hand.

Ranma suddenly extended her hands with her fingers spread. Between her fingers, power visibly coursed and arced. A huge rippling effect was witnessed as a tidal wave of ripped and torn space/time hurdled toward Sailor Sun, engulfing her within. Ranma closed her hands making the wave fold upon itself, trapping Sailor Sun, then with a waver, the rippling ball of space/time ceased to exist, taking Sailor Sun with it.

Keeping her guard up, Ranma scanned and rescanned for any hint of Sailor Sun. Minutes ticked by and she continued her vigil. _"That has got to have gotten her,"_ Ranma though with a smirk._ "_Nothing can exist without a place and time - and I took both of those away from her... but that doesn't mean much for someone like her."

Not wanting to make anymore mistakes, Ranma deepened her scan - and found something. It was small, but enough to alarm her. "Oh shit," she muttered before teleporting away.

Instantly finding herself five hundred and sixty Astronomical Units from where the Solar System used to be, Ranma felt a great unleashing of raw energy exploded from where she had been. The titanic burst was so compressed at its point of origin that it traveled faster than the speed of light before slowing. Ranma rode out the ocean of released energy like a surfer on a wave, all the while scanning for her opponent that she knew had somehow survived. The powerful shockwave would continue on for another ten light years, devouring and pulling apart anything in its path, from small rocks to entire star systems.

It would take time, but the galaxy would eventually recover from the new hole that was made in one of its spiral arms.

"Crap, crap, crap, crap," Ranma chanted while she searched out her foe. "What in the hell does it take to kill her?" She then consciously suppressed her presence, hoping to catch Sailor Sun unawares. Ranma also shifted her scans to a passive mode, eliminating any hints of her whereabouts that a more active one would have done.

Minutes ticked by as Ranma flew through the vast nothingness that the released energy left in its wake. The fabric of space was a jumbled, patch-quilt mess after the last salvo of the fight and was as disorienting as being in a house of mirrors, but Ranma allowed her higher processing powers to sift through it for her. _"There,"_ she thought._ "She's over there. Probably looking for me."_

Smiling internally and with great maliciousness at catching Sailor Sun unawares, Ranma suppressed herself even more as she moved closer for the kill. It was thrilling and exciting to be stalking someone who stalked her. She felt energy and raw power soaking her very being, but she managed to keep it all inside. _"Mustn't tip my hand," _she thought with grim determination as she maneuvered behind Sailor Sun.

Summoning her sword, Ranma raised it high before pointing it at Sailor Sun's back. Ranma's barely contained energy was just bubbling, longing to escape the confines of her body. With a smirk, Ranma focused on the pointed tip of her sword and aimed it like a gun at the unsuspecting back of Sailor Sun. With her eyes just glowing with power and a smile of grim pleasure on her face, Ranma unleashed her attack.

That's when things went to hell.

Before the concentrated energy could even make its way down the body of her sword, it struck out at its wielder with a mind of its own. The energy that Ranma had planned on releasing against Sailor Sun entangled around her like the coils of a snake. With the loss of surprise, panicked gripped her as she desperately tried to get whatever had happened under control, but it was to no avail as she was clueless as to why her own power had betrayed her. The tactical part of her brain that had always been a constant companion to her in fights, fell silent in a mind-numbing way. Ranma screamed as the thick ropes of energy encased and squeezed her from all sides.

The more power she drew, the tighter the coils got.

The ghostly tiara on her forehead glowed brighter, the gold bands that held it in place retracted inward toward the gem. Once all the way in, the gem glowed even brighter - changing into and melting into the Sun symbol that seemed etched into her forehead. Ranma frowned as she felt the changes and decided to stop drawing on the power she had tapped into. It didn't stop and as another wave of it hit her, her back involuntarily arched and the symbol on her forehead flared once, twice then unleashed a brilliant beam of light that shot out into the depths of space.

All this happened far too quickly to measure with the exception of the pleasure. Ranma screamed as pleasure taken to the point of pain and beyond.

"No! Stop!" she screamed.

Eyes firmly closed, Ranma wrestled the overpowering euphoric feelings that threatened to overwhelm and crush her very self. Focusing on what was going on inside her in her effort to regain control, Ranma let her body do what it wanted to. Floating free, her body convulsed and jerked, surrounded and being circled by bands of energy. The new symbol on her forehead glowed even brighter. The pain/pleasure increased. She screamed louder.

Sailor Sun watched all of this with bright, hopeful eyes.

Ranma fought for control of herself as the unrelenting power that coursed through her threatened to upset her mental balance. With her eyes firmly shut, she managed to cradle her head with her hands and bend into a fetal position while she struggled to overcome the insanely intoxicating feeling that was flooding her.

"No, no," Ranma repeated aloud as she willed her senses and power to dull and not overwhelm her. Ranma's sheer willpower made the energy that coursed through her ebb somewhat and the glowing that surrounded her forehead subsided slightly. The power, however, was still there and growing. And growing. And growing. It was a titanic battle that Ranma was losing and her forehead flared brighter than before.

_"I can't... hold it,"_ Ranma thought as she struggled. _"I can't!"_

Unseen by Ranma, bands of energy that surrounded her, collected about her once again. As she tied into more and more universes, it felt like switches being tripped, bring more and more power to her. Ranma felt all of creation swirl about and through her, building and coalescing until it reached a point that Ranma felt she couldn't take anymore.

Sailor Sun wasn't too alarmed, but she was concerned as she watched the struggling redhead. "Don't fight it," she called to Ranma. "Let it happen."

_"No,"_ Ranma thought as she fought the madness. "No. I won't give up. I am Ranma Yonai and I never give up!"

Ranma's body flared again, brighter than before. Her back arched painfully backward before relaxing.

_"I will not surrender," _Ranma chanted in her mind. _"I will be in control."_

Ranma's brightly glowing body tumbled past Sailor Sun, heading deeper into the void. On Ranma's forehead, the circular symbol of the Sun twisted into the symbol of infinity as the two "flares" shot out and ended just under each of her eyes, leaving behind two symbols in a divine language high on each cheek. Another line of raw energy exploded from the symbol her forehead and disappeared into the void.

Sailor Sun looked upon the writhing, struggling girl and smiled. "_Perfect_." she thought as she studied the changing redhead._ "Her symbol is different - and it wasn't quite like that for me... I wonder why... no matter."_

Watching the birth of a goddess was impressive.

_"Focus. Focus," _Ranma chanted mentally and thanked god for the teachings of Happosai and swore that she would be a better student in the future. _"If I can focus on the problem and forget everything else, I'll be fine."_

The glowing symbol on her forehead subsided as Ranma managed to get control of herself somewhat. Her eyes were tightly shut and she felt the sensations pass and subside. She used that moment to mentally catch her breath.

"What... what," she panted out. "What did you do to me?"

Sailor Sun placed a surprisingly comforting hand on Ranma's shoulder.

"I set you free," Sailor Sun said softly. "You are truly free."

Ranma opened her eyes for the first time since her ordeal began. Sailor Sun withdrew her hand from Ranma in surprise. This was not what she was expecting. The changes in the girl-turned-goddess were alarming because this was definitely not exactly how it happened to her all those centuries ago. Those eyes! There were no irises and everything else was a black as the depths of space.

For Ranma things were different. She saw everything.

Everything.

Every atom, every galaxy, every universe.

She just didn't see it. She saw the web of power flowing to her from every universe. This made her more than just part of it, but she was all of it. She saw all of creation.

She was all of creation.

Creation is big. Huge. Incomprehensible for any who are prepared to face it. For those who are caught unprepared, it can be unhinging. Ranma screamed again as all of creation threatened to drag her into an abyss of madness.

She saw things that no one should see. Could see. She saw all the universes with all the infinite possibilities . She saw many worlds where she didn't exist in any form, others where there she was a prince, a princess, a sex slave, an average housewife, a salary man, a sex-demon mommy, the first Asian-American President of the United States...

Some worlds she saw Serenity reborn... as Kasumi, Nodoka, Akiko and in a few worlds Ranma saw herself as Serenity. All the endless possibilities crashed into her very soul as she felt a part of each before everything was lost in the information overload.

Worst of all was as she stared into the heart of creation, it stared back at her, piercing her soul and making it want to wither and die. Ranma desperately grappled for an anchor, something to hold on to - something to keep her from succumbing to the sheer insanity of it all. Closing her eyes, she cut herself off from everything and focused on her center. She couldn't muster a focal point and her mind drifted in a storm of overwhelming information.

She felt herself slipping away... losing what little mental and emotional handholds she had.

The fight.

Ranma mentally grabbed onto that...

The fight.

She had to win the fight

The fight.

... and she never loses - almost never...

The fight.

... the fight was something to focus on, to hold on to.

Ranma's breathing steadied as the inner turmoil slackened and calmed. The fight was all she was living for and she swore to herself she would win...

... nothing else mattered.

By focusing on the fight, Ranma was able to use that as a barrier to keep herself emotionally stable. Letting out a final sigh, she opened the dark pits that had once been her eyes and turned them toward her nemesis. She looked at Sailor Sun, who was waiting nearby, and scanned, filtered, and analyzed the results. Taking a deep breath, she continued her examination.

She studied the power within Sailor Sun and saw how all the life force in this universe was residing inside her. Ranma also studied the lines of energy that stretched from Sailor Sun, linking to... everything.

_"No wonder she is so powerful,"_ Ranma realized. She then turned her attention to herself and felt the countless lines of power that flowed to all of creation and into herself. Looking back at Sailor Sun, Ranma saw that Sailor Sun was pulling power the same way as she was. The lines of power ran parallel to each other and drew from the life-force of everything. Literally.

"The more I draw, the more life-force everything loses," Ranma realized to herself, much to her dismay. _"It's the same with her..."_

"Do you see now?" Sailor Sun asked. "Do you finally see?"

Ranma straightened and looked at her other self.

"Yes," Ranma answered. "I do."

Sailor Sun smiled widely.

"I see that you are one sick bitch that ripped the life-force from this universe so you could play god," Ranma said cooly.

Sailor Sun's smile changed to a deep frown.

Ranma remained silent as she circled Sailor Sun. Hanging in the void of space, each was sizing the other up. Both had their wings extended and seemed to be using them to draw power from. Sailor Sun gazed at Ranma with her hard, glowing eyes as Ranma stared back with her dark, empty pits that were her eyes.

"You dare!" Sailor Sun roared. "Without me, you'd be nothing."

Ranma shook her head in response.

"I made you into a god and this is the thanks I get," Sailor Sun said angrily. "You still-blind fool, I made you, I can break you too."

Ranma stopped her orbit of Sailor Sun and smirked. Falling into a ready stance, modified on the fly for weightlessness, Ranma motioned with a hand.

"Bring it on."

And she did. Sailor Sun shot toward the other redhead with such speed that it was as instantaneous as teleporting. Ranma's shielding easily managed the barrage that Sailor Sun was unleashing. Unfortunately, any attacks that Ranma performed also failed against her opponent's shields. After a brief, but extremely violent exchange, the two broke apart.

Studying her opponent, Ranma sifted through several options that presented themselves and picked one. Bringing her hands up, her fingers quickly moved in an intricate pattern, as if she were making some incantation with them. The motions with her fingers - either out of necessity or habit - were in fact unlocking a higher end attack. Finishing with her hands steepled before her head, she pressed the middle and indexed fingers together and pointed them at Sailor Sun.

A thin, bright line of energy streaked toward Sailor Sun. The point of contact between Sailor Sun's shields and Ranma's attack flared blindingly bright as the beam of energy wormed its way through the Sailor Sun's defenses to strike her in the chest, just right of center. Her whole body glowed before bursting and vaporizing into a halo of gaseous energy.

_"That ought to hold her for a few moments," _Ranma thought. _"But I need something to put her down permanently."_

Ranma rescanned the area, knowing that Sailor Sun would make another appearance. _"The problem is that we can counter every attack we have," _Ranma paused to check the lines of energy that she was drawing from. _"Not to mention that she keeps regenerating from nothing. I'm sucking the life force from all of creation just fighting her - and she's doing the same. That means this fight can last forever - and we'll end up draining the life-force from everything in creation."_

Ranma looked around the dead universe she found herself in. _"That would mean every universe would end up as dead as this one."_

She sighed heavily while deepening her scans. _"No," _she thought with a shake of her head. _"There's gotta be some attack, some technique that I can use. Gah, it's like fighting a mountain, no matter what I do..."_

Ranma's mind seized on that thought. I was something... something that Happosai had taught her... when? It seemed like a life-time ago. She seized upon that memory and followed it. Then a smiled crossed her lips. She had a plan.

As soon as Ranma formulated her plan, Sailor Sun popped in and returned the favor of Ranma's attack. Ranma felt her body being atomized, but was unconcerned - she knew she would be back, and this time with a plan. She didn't even ponder how she could continue to think when she was, for all intents and purposes, nonexistent. Once her body reformed itself, she closed in on her other self, and instead of using her ranged attacks, she summoned her sword and engaged Sailor Sun up close and personal.

The two traded blows as Ranma ignored the rantings of her opponent on how ungrateful she was and how stupid she was being - she was starting to sound like a broken record anyway - and studied her with new eyes. Ranma followed the lines that connected Sailor Sun to the rest of everything and started to actually "feel" them as well. Absently blocking the few blows that Sailor Sun threw at her, Ranma sorted through the knots that the lines of power formed as they converged. There within the heart of this, Ranma found what she was seeking.

She had found the pebble.

"Found it!" she exclaimed to herself, _"but how do I get it? It keeps changing phase."_

Her eyes narrowed as she concentrated. The two swords clashed. Focusing, she willed her very being to match the pulsing of her target. It followed a predictable pattern, like a heartbeat. Ranma realized that was a much like a heartbeat, a heartbeat that the life-force of creation flowed through Sailor Sun.

Ranma parried and made a swipe for it - and missed.

Sailor Sun reacted by severing Ranma's outstretched hand. Ranma pulled back what was left of her arm as it quickly reformed. _"Dammit," _Ranma thought. _"I can't get close enough to take it."_

Another volley of swords, slashes, and blocks followed.

"I gotta think," Ranma fanatically thought. "_What we're doing is a standoff. No one is going to win this at this rate."_

Ranma sped through different tactics in her head and decided to lose.

The flat of Ranma's sword pushed aside the sword of her older self, but not far enough to deflect it entirely. Ranma gave out a howl of pain as the tip of Sailor Sun's sword penetrated her armor layer and dug in and impaled itself into Ranma's chest. The blade passed through a lung before stopping.

"Ha!" Ranma's redheaded foe said with an evil smile on her face. "Pathetic. I thought you would last longer that that."

Ranma's own sword dissolved as she dropped it, her hands flailed about before grasping at Sailor Sun's hands as they gripped onto her hilt of her sword. Thinking that Ranma was attempting to pry the sword from her grasp, Sailor Sun forced the sword in deeper causing Ranma cry out in pain as she actually felt the point on the sword dig into her shoulder blade from the inside. The force of the thrust also pushed them through space, propelling them into a hot gas cloud.

"I could've made you a goddess. Instead you chose to forsake me," at this point, Sailor Sun pressed harder against her sword, causing Ranma to cry out louder, "and my kind offer and side with those mortals."

Ranma replied with a almost animal-like snarl.

"Well, at least I'll get a pet out of this," Sailor Sun mused. "You'll make a fine one, once I house-break you."

Ranma gripped harder at the hands that held the sword that impaled her. Sailor Sun answered by thrusting hard, penetrating through the shoulder blade and bringing the sword's guard into contact with Ranma's chest.

"You're such an idiot," Sailor Sun said with disgust dripping from every word.

"You're wrong," Ranma said defiantly, spiting blood that burnt to ashes in the hot gas cloud.

"I'm wrong? I'm Wrong!" the Sailor Sun raged, punctuating every word with a twist of her sword. Ranma cried out with every twist. "Who has who here?"

While Ranma's screams of agony were keeping Sailor Sun amused, Ranma was able to focus and channeled her ki through their joined hands. Since their aura's were identical, she hoped that her intrusion would go undetected long enough for her to take the pebble. Slowly Ranma's ki moved through the very slowly of her opponent ki, touching the very dark and twisted soul of Sailor Sun.

_"I can't take it - not like this," _Ranma thought in a panic. _"It's too rooted into her soul."_

A wave of intense pain invaded her detach part of consciousness. _"I don't think I can take much more,"_ Ranma desperately though as she narrowed her eyes, locking it onto her target. _"I'll just have to make a grab for it..."_

Sailor Sun seemed to sense at the last moment that Ranma was doing something and tried to pull away. Ranma had a death grip on the hands of Sailor Sun and refused to release it. That moment, all was lost to Sailor Sun as Ranma took the pebble.

Ranma's ghostly hand entered Sailor Sun's chest, between her breasts, and disappeared. Sailor Sun looked down in surprise that she didn't feel anything, except for a slight pulling sensation. She then looked up into the smirking face of Ranma.

"Got you," Ranma said flatly.

Yanking her fist back, Ranma pulled a crystal out of the body of Sailor Sun. Ranma literally ripped the brightly glowing crystal from the body of Sailor Sun, who convulsed once before stilling. Ranma thought the surprised look on Sailor Sun face was priceless, before the blank stare of death looked back at her. The sword that impaled Ranma dissolved into nothingness as the lifeless body of Sailor Sun floated before her. Ranma studied the body and the crystal on her hand. She discovered the line of power between it and the soul that had fled its shell. She knew the moment she let go of the crystal, Sailor Sun would resurrect herself. Ranma knew what she had to do.

She closed her fist further and the crystal resisted for a moment before succumbing. A bright flash of a silent explosion ripped outward, incinerating the physical remains of Sailor Sun - who was now destined to never to be reborn with any powers that she was granted in this life.

She could feel the life-force of this universe flow back in great waves that raced invisibly outward. It would take millions, maybe billions, of years for life to evolve all over again, but it would happen. Ranma sighed in relief as the rush of the fight left her body. Now that the fight had passed there was nothing really to focus on.

Ranma floated in space, relaxing and calming herself. Then the creeping sensation of everything made itself know, like an itch you couldn't scratch. _"Better transform out of this form," _Ranma thought. _"It's too creepy feeling all of creation flowing around you."_

She concentrated briefly. And nothing happened.

Blinking, she closed her eyes and focused on putting away her power and staging down. Again, nothing happened.

Panic grip her for a moment. _"I'm not trying hard enough,"_ she chided herself. _"I need to relax through it."_

Closing her eyes and entering an almost mediative state, she became more alarmed. "I-I can't," she thought a loud with building panic. "I'm stuck! What the hell is going on!"

Ranma's breathing grew ragged as she tried to detransform. "It's not working. It's not working," she said as she corralled her panic, not letting it rule her. "I gotta think... on... what's going on."

Bringing herself back under control, or at least some semblance...

"Okay - one step at a time," she continued. "All I need to do..." her voice trailed off as she became aware of another presence. It didn't seem to be malevolent, but it was overpowering. Ranma took a deep, hesitant breath and felt everything else seemed to breathe with her. She tensed up from the sensation and once again, felt creation as it tensed with her.

Schooling her courage, Ranma shuddered - feeling the reaction mirrored in the surrounding universe - and beyond. Opening her eyes, she saw everything again - and this time it was staring right back at her. It was like a living thing and it was staring right through her, judging her, and mocking her very existence. Ranma quickly closed her eyes to deprive herself the horror of the whole of creation staring back at her.

With her eyes closed, she felt creation stir as if it was aware of her attempts to shut it out. Like a wild, man eating animal of some sort, creation stalked her - probed her - as if looking for a weak spot in her psyche in which to strike. Ranma felt a spike of panic surge through her and felt the ripple in space/time caused by her emotions.

_"I have to stay in control,"_ Ranma thought as she struggled to find some sort of center. _"If I lose it, bad things could happen."_

As earlier when she was fighting, Ranma looked for something to hang on to. Anything to anchor herself and her emotions. Without the distraction of the fight, Ranma found very little to immediately latch onto.

With the dangerous and overpowering sensations creeping up on her from all sides of her, Ranma retreated into herself as all of creation leapt upon her like a pouncing tiger, intent on crushing her soul. Ranma did the only thing she could think of...

... she ran.

-------

"She can't detransform," Sailor Moon announced.

"How do you know that?" Tenchi asked.

Sailor Moon held a hand up to her chest. "I can feel it."

"We're in a lot of trouble," the ghostly Tsunami announced in a controlled voice. "Washu, look at this." A holographic screen popped up showing what looked like a zillion lines all converging in the middle, forming a ball-like chart. Underneath was a graph with a line that went straight up.

Washu's brow furrowed just before her eyes widened. "Oh lord."

"What? What?" an impatient chant came from Sailor Mars and Ryoko. The two stopped and looked at one another before returning their attention to the two Techo-mages.

"Is something wrong with Ranma?" Tenchi worriedly interjected.

"Yes," Tsunami replied. "She has heavily exceeded her design specifications and is now in an unknown, untheorized stage of her power curve."

The people in the room blink-blinked and stared back at the holographic image that was being projected by the small, floating device.

"What does that mean?" Tenchi asked, trying to remain patient.

"This represents Ranma's power curve," Washu explained, pointing to the lower chart. "This," pointing to the top one, "is where the power is derived from."

"That's all very nice," Sailor Mercury said, "but what, exactly does this all mean?"

"It means that Ranma has tapped into the very heart of creation. She may be now merging with it, if she's not already part of it."

"What!" bellowed someone.

"She wasn't intended to tap that far, she was only supposed to use the center of the galaxy as the focal point for her powers," Tsunami quickly explained. "What is happening here is an accident."

Everyone stared at the ghostly image of the Techo-mage.

"Well it's one hell of an accident," Sailor Mars said smartly, interrupting the silence. "What do you do for an encore?"

Tsunami gave Sailor Mars a very annoyed look which Sailor Mars returned.

"Who was the Moon Kingdom at war with at the time to justify such a... development," Sailor Uranus asked.

"No one," Tsunami admitted flatly. "Fire-Walker was the ultimate deterrent."

"Her name is Ranma," Sailor Moon reminded.

"Some deterrent," Mars snorted. "The Moon Kingdom still fell."

"Yes," Tsunami agreed, but annoyed at Sailor Mars' attitude. "We didn't expect the attack to come from within."

"Is that why you didn't use her?" asked Sailor Moon.

Tsunami sighed heavily. "The decision not to use Sailor Sun was - a political one," she said with a glare. "If they would have used Sailor Sun back then-"

"We'd have two insane Sailor Sun's running around instead of one," Sailor Mars interjected. On that note the room fell silent.

"I don't believe you guys," Sailor Moon said loudly. "You create problems that come back and bite us in the ass, and then you try to excuse yourself because it was your job?"

"And how is that any different than what you were doing," Washu shot back. "All of you were the product of several projects."

"And the most successful of all the subjects," Tsunami said. "The binding with your life-force was complete."

"You're proud of this?" Sailor Mars asked. "You're talking to us like we were nothing but things here."

"I am proud of what we accomplished," Tsunami answered irritably. "All of you were our greatest achievements."

"Achievements? Projects? Subjects?" Sailor Moon echoed. "We are human beings, not something for you to tinker together from scratch."

There was an uncomfortable lull that lasted a few heartbeats.

"The Kingdom needed weapons," Tsunami explained defensively. "What were we supposed to do? The possibility of invasion from outside the Solar System was a very real concern at the time. Were we suppose to ignore it, and maybe regret it? Or should we prepare for the worst?"

"As far as preparing for the worst, it looks like you still screwed up," Sailor Mercury shot out. "When the invasion came, the weapon was too powerful to use. A weapon that like that is a useless one."

The other Senshi nodded in agreement while Tenchi remained silent, but seemed to be at a slow boil.

"You should not have played god," Sailor Moon said flatly. "Saying the means justify the ends is wrong - especially if the moral cost is too high." Sailor Moon looked at Tsunami straight in the eye. "Has it ever occurred to you two," Sailor Moon continued with irritation leaking into her voice, "that just because something can be done, doesn't mean that it should be done?"

Silence revisited the room.

"We were only doing what we thought was best at the time," Tsunami repeated in an even way, "and at the time, it was for the best."

Sailor Moon shook her head. "Like the Protectors were?"

"That was... an oversight in programing," Tsunami said evenly. "The Techo-mage in charge of that project failed to build in safeguards."

"You seem to have a lot of problems with safeguards," Sailor Mercury chimed in. "You either have too many or none at all."

Tsunami was clearly running out of patience, but Tenchi interrupted.

"Right now I really don't care who or what is at fault or to blame. I don't what to hear anymore finger-pointing," he said in a loud, clear voice that oozed with controlled frustration. "All I care about is what can we do to help Ranma."

-------

The fight had held her together until it ended, after that, there was nothing to focus on. All her mediation techniques that she knew were useless in the face of literally everything. One thing was clear: Ranma was in a losing fight with herself and running until she thought of something was all she could think of.

The problem was that the deeper Ranma ran into herself, the more of creation chased her. During this metaphoric chase, creation was picking apart Ranma soul, like ants tearing apart a larger animal and carrying her off to someplace unknown. Those little ants were whole universes, so small and unimportant as individuals, that Ranma resisted the urge to swat them off of her. Losing a few to gain some relief would not be that big of a deal...

... not that big of a deal? _"These are whole freaking universes," _Ranma reminded herself. _"I can't be thinking that way!_"

Willing or not, and she was still connected to the bits of herself that were gone and it was driving her insane. It was complicated by the overpowering feeling of detachment accompanied by the feeling of intoxicating warmth. However this was a small comfort that was overshadowed by the feeling of her soul being scrutinized by what, she did not know. It left her feeling vulnerable and petty.

It was like she was turning into something inhuman.

Her soul stripped of the excess baggage that defined who she was, Ranma found herself in a morass of an identity crisis. Being part of, no - being creation, Ranma felt everything in it moving to her pulse. Worse, she felt that whatever was looking at and through her soul was weighing her, judging her.

This was what divinity was like?

Being a goddess wasn't what it was cracked up to be and Ranma knew she couldn't hack it. Moving deeper within herself, with the entire mass of creation still nipping at her heels, Ranma withdrew further into herself, hoping for a respite. So deep, that for the moment, she was alone with her thoughts. Even there, the feelings of everything still surrounded her like wild animals in the night, held at bay by the light of a campfire.

In the shadows of what followed her, Ranma sensed the righteousness of individual beings and the injustices that were heaped upon others. The weak? Duty was to protect the weak... but at what price? Should she step into those shadows and mete out divine justice on their behalf?

Divine? Where did that come from?

_"I can't fix everything,"_ Ranma thought. "_There's too much to set right... how can I?"_

Ranma's mind reeled._ "NO! I mustn't. Sailor Sun was self righteousness and it was the reason for her justifying what she did. I won't go that way."_ Ranma mentally sighed._ "But I can't NOT do anything, if there is something wrong happening... but... who am I to say..."_

It was a confusing and seductive thing. To move against those that would oppress others... _"But I would become the oppressor," _she concluded. Pulling herself away from the encroaching shadows, Ranma reinforced her will, making the even the darkest parts withdrawal.

_"I can't... I shouldn't. I won't be like her."_

Her other self...

... The mistress...

... Sailor Sun...

... a monster.

_"How long will it take for me to become like her?"_ Ranma thought as she floated along in fetal position. _"How long can I hold out?"_ she pondered that for a short moment. "I better figure out a way out, just in case I can't."

Now with a purpose, the shadows of creation further receded as Ranma went to the deepest part of her being. The heart of herself.

Her astral projection beheld the the crystal that was grafted and fused within her soul. She studied the power flowing through it, the many facets, and the wide range of colors that danced around as well as inside of it. It pulsed like a heartbeat, the shifting colors reflecting the pulse - all in synch with the heart of creation itself...

... or all of creation was in synch with her. Not that it mattered which was which.

She reached out metaphorically and felt the warm smoothness of the glass-like structure. The imagined ridges of her fingertips found no purchase in the hard, smooth surface. Using something equivalent to her sight, Ranma began to study the many cuts and sides of the crystal that was welded to her soul for defects.

She hoped to find a flaw in the crystalize structure, something to use a force of will against. Something to end the chance of her turning into what she feared, once and for all. Using her will, she began to probe.

Perhaps she could end any threat once and for all.

--------

"What is that?" Mercury asked as she pointed to a waver in the massive, confusing, wave-form that represented Ranma's power signature. What Mercury had spotted was a slight deviation in one of the thicker lines that suddenly contracted sharply.

Washu furrowed her brow and studied the indicated line. "I'm not sure."

Tsunami looked over Washu's shoulder and equally frowned. "What is she up to?"

Washu cocked her head, making her long, spiky hair pass through the image of Tsunami as she did so. "It's like... she's contracted... her life-force around the graft."

"Why would she do that?" Tsunami asked. "It doesn't make sense."

"The graft?" Sailor Mercury inquired.

"It's in reference to the infusion point," Washu explained. "It's the exact spot where the spatial harmonics crystal was grafted into her life-force."

Mercury nodded before asking, "And Ranma has contracted the rest of her life-force around this?"

----------

Ranma was growing frustrated. The more she looked, the less she found. Unlike the flawed crystal that inhabited the heart of Sailor Sun, Ranma couldn't find any obvious flaws within herself.

_"Maybe I can create some," _she thought. Ranma began contracting and squeezing the crystal, hoping to reveal any hidden flaws, something that she could use to pry herself into, something she could use to rip it apart.

_"Everything has a limit."_

----------

The redheaded Senshi floated in the view-screen, surrounded by the void of an alien universe.

"Can we travel there?" Sailor Mars asked to nobody.

"Pluto probably can," Sailor Mercury responded absently while looking up something in her computer.

"Let's go," Tenchi announced.

"I would advise against that," Tsunami said calmly. "It is possible that Ranma is insane. It is best to leave her where she is at."

"I'm not going to abandon her to die," Tenchi snapped at the Tech-mage. "I'm not going to abandon her, period."

"I will not assist you," Tsunami said flatly.

Sailor Moon and Tenchi opened their mouths to object, but were cut off by Tsunami continuing, "I know it is difficult for you to understand, but it is better that it ends this way."

Tenchi looked at Tsunami and then to Washu, who seemed uncertain. "Can you take me to her?"

Washu bit her lip before shaking her head. "Yes - but I don't have the right equipment running right now and it would take time to set it up." She looked on Tenchi. "I'll come with you," Washu offered, "but I need time."

Tenchi's frustration was boiling over. He was about to say something disparaging to Washu when a hand landed on his shoulder. He turned and was face to face with one of the Senshi.

It was Sailor Pluto.

"C'mon," she said. "Let's go get her."

---------

Closing herself off to the universe around her, Ranma focused internally as she probed and prodded, looking for any weakness. Much to her dismay, her probing yielded few results. But what she did discovered had given her some hope. Between one of the many facets of the crystal, Ranma felt that she could force a break by concentrating and applying force to the natural crystalline structure. She contracted her lifeforce, backed and focused by the very crystal she hoped to destroy, and watched as the gem 'flexed'.

She smiled grimly to herself. She could force the crystal apart.

_"With more force, I can split it here and shatter it," _she thought. Second thoughts haunted her from the recesses of her mind. She just as quickly banished them as she felt that the threat was too great. She sighed sadly. _"It probably be for the best."_

Gathering energy, she prepared a one, final assault of herself. And then...

... Something touched her.

But that was not possible...

... even with the life force returned to the universe, life had yet to return.

Who?

At first Ranma ignored the sensation, wanting to get lost within herself. She was sure that it was creation wanting to torment her some more before she... killed herself. In response, Ranma redoubled her efforts at gathering the energy needed, when she felt herself being held - physically held by someone or something.

The sensation of being held drew her away from her task and she dared to open her eyes.

No!

_"I don't what him to see me like this!"_ her mind howled. _"Not like like this!"_

Tenchi, protected from space and the high radiation that surrounded him by his Juraian powers, cradled Ranma in his arms. At first he was alarmed by the non-responsiveness of the redhead. Eventually Ranma seemed to come out of whatever trance she had put herself into and looked into Tenchi's blue eyes with the dark pits that used to be her eyes. He seemed to cringe at what she saw.

"No..." Ranma whispered, "please... not like this..."

"Shhh," Tenchi said, reaching out to the girl, "it's all right. I'm here."

"Here?" Ranma thought as if disbelieving. "Tenchi here," she repeated as it sunk it that Tenchi was indeed with her.

Tenchi

Ranma mentally grabbed onto that...

Tenchi

... someone who cared...

Tenchi

... someone she cared for...

Tenchi

... someone to hold on to.

Ranma's breathing steadied as the inner turmoil slackened and calmed. It didn't matter what had happened to her forty thousand years ago or more, it didn't matter that Serenity - her Serenity - used her at first, regretted it, and passed on. It didn't matter that Pluto destroyed all that she was to bring her back to what was needed...

... Ranma had forgiven and moved on. It didn't matter anymore. What mattered was what she had now. Friends, family, loved ones... nothing else mattered.

Tenchi.

"Tenchi," Ranma whimpered as Tenchi tried to console the girl.

"Shhhh," he said. "Don't try to talk."

"I don't want this. I can't take this anymore," Ranma cried into Tenchi's chest before she began to babble. "I can feel the universes. I feel them all. I don't want to be like... I don't want this, please make it go away, I don't want to be like her, please make it stop..."

Tenchi desperately looked up from the women he loved to the two other people that accompanied him to this dead universe. Sailor Pluto looked lost as what to do as Washu studied a small hand held device before looking up.

"Can you get us to my lab?"

Tenchi cradled Ranma in his arms, holding her close to him. She clutched at him with the desperation of a drowning man to a life preserver in the middle of an ocean. Her fingers grabbed at the fabric of his shirt, bunching it up between her fingers. Desperate to lose herself in his presence, she somehow managed to succeed to a degree.

So focused on Tenchi, she didn't even notice when they traveled back to their home universe.

The air wavered as the four people appeared in Washu's lab. Sailor Pluto stowed her staff as she stepped further into the room, not sparing a glance around. Tsunami's image wavered into existence by different means and looked worriedly at the girl that Tenchi was carrying.

"Put her over there," Washu ordered as she moved among her equipment. "I'll get the limiters."

Tenchi moved over to a low bench indicated and gingerly began to place Ranma on it when she grabbed at Tenchi's shirt.

"No! Please!" Ranma begged. "Please don't leave me."

Tenchi wavered only for a micro-second before enfolding Ranma into his arms again. Ranma calmed and snuggled closer. Tenchi turned and sat on the bench, holding Ranma.

"You stay with her," Sailor Pluto ordered. "We know where to look, it shouldn't take long."

On that, Sailor Pluto followed Washu across the vast expanse of the lab, leaving behind them a whimpering, shell shocked and dangerously powerful girl who was clinging to Tenchi as if her life depended on it.

"Will what you have help her?" Sailor Pluto asked as she caught up to Washu.

"I really don't know," Washu admitted. "I haven't enough time to really study them, I'll have to take T'Pau's description of them on face value."

Sailor Pluto gave a snort for a response as Washu removed the two earring-like devices from where she was examining them earlier. She held them up for Pluto to see.

Sailor Pluto blinked. "You gotta be kidding me."

Washu shook her head in response.

Pluto sighed and both headed back to where they had left Tenchi and Ranma. When they returned, they found the couple exactly as they left them: Tenchi on the bench, Ranma on Tenchi.

"Here," Washu said as she offered the earrings, "give these to her."

Tenchi managed to get Ranma's attention and held up the small object for her to see. Ranma stared at them with her black eyes, uncomprehending.

"How do you use them?" Tenchi asked Washu.

"According to the instructions, you attach them to the lobe of each ear."

Tenchi blinked. "Earrings?"

"No, but that's how they're used," Washu clarified.

Tenchi examined one of the devices, looking at how they would be worn. The main ring was seamless and smooth with no clip or post to use as a point of attachment. He looked between the rings, Ranma, and at last to Washu with a questioning look.

"I haven't time for a thorough examination," Washu explained, "but the rings appear to synch with whomever holds them. She'll have to put them on herself."

Tenchi shifted Ranma in his arms enough so that he can look at her in the face. She had her eyes closed and seemed reluctant to be moved about and groaned slightly in protest. "Ranma," he called softly to her. "Take these - they are suppose to help."

Ranma opened her eyes. Tenchi controlled the natural reaction of being repelled by the two dark pits that were her eyes. Ranma seemed to study the offered jewelry-like devices and cocked her head. Slowly she reached out for them.

Taking the rings into her hand, everyone felt a definite shift in the atmosphere of the room, as if some unknown energy was flowing through it. Ranma cocked her head again one way and then the other as she seemed to contemplate something. No one said anything, the silence and stillness of the room went unnoticed as the quiet drama played out. It was as if the whole universe was holding its breath, waiting for Ranma to come to a decision. Ranma studied the innocent looking devices for a few heartbeats before shifting them around in her hands so that one was held between her thumb and forefinger.

She raised her hand and turned her head to face Tenchi. The ring neared her ears and when it was close enough seemed to "suck" itself onto her lobe. Ranma blinked. Something happened, but she was not sure as to what it was. She gave her new bit of jewelry an experimental tug and discovered that it would not budge. Her eyes seemed to be less dark than they were.

Ranma looked at Tenchi in the eyes and blinked again.

"Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," Ranma replied in a voice that reverberated. "Something happened, but I'm not sure what."

"Try the other one," Tenchi urged.

Ranma repeated the process with the other ear and the effects were much more dramatic. Ranma's body convulsed and immediately became more solid looking. Tenchi clung to her as she convulsed, keeping her from falling out of his lap. A long, loud sigh of relief escaped her lips as she detransformed quickly, passing through various stages until she was back in her civilian clothes.

-----------

The plane where gods resided.

A place of existence that was apart, yet a part of everything, there was a room. The room was high and vast - so large that one got the feeling that they were outdoors than actually inside a building - much less a room. There was a circular pattern in the way the room was arranged, in the center was a opening that permitted a great column of translucent light to pass through. The column of light extended high above and far below until either end was lost to sight.

The column was translucent and streaming over its surface were thousands of symbols in a divine language. Surrounding the central column, beings of great power monitored the drama as it unfolded and resolved itself. At its conclusion, several divine beings sighed in relief.

"She has stabilized," one of the goddesses monitoring a control panel made of light announced. "The limiters are functioning and the degradation of them is set."

"It's over... for now," Peorth announced. "The seed that we planted today will be ready to bear fruit by the end of... everything."

Belldandy nodded. "Ranma will grow accustomed to her powers over her many incarnations and be truly ready for her ascension by the time this universe comes to an end."

"I wonder if it was like this before?" Skuld mused aloud.

"Circle of life," Peorth answered softly. "Everything has a beginning and end, we have just assured that there will be another round of creation."

The other goddesses in the vast, dream-like room nodded.

----------

Ranma blinked a few times groggily, her head flopping about as she hadn't the strength to hold it upright. She quickly gave up on the effort and rested her head against Tenchi's chest, Tenchi reflexively drew her closer.

"R-Ranma?" Tenchi asked worriedly. "Are you alright?"

"T-tired," was the weak response as she leaned more into Tenchi.

"Ranma?"

"Shhh... sleepy," came a mumble as she used his chest as a pillow.

Tenchi looked down at the now lightly snoring girl and blinked. Studying her, he broke into a wide smile. He knew, somehow, that she was going to be all right.

During Ranma's detransformation, Washu took readings and measurements of what was happening. She hadn't the time to really to figure out how the limiters worked, but she couldn't deny the fact that they did work. Ranma had achieved the impossible for her: She had reached a zero state.

"That is not possible," Tsunami said simply as she looked over Washu's shoulder and at the readouts. "She was never intended to have a zero state."

"Well she does now," Washu's said smartly. "And if I'm right, her entire staging has been bumped around."

"What does that mean?" Sailor Pluto asked.

"It means that... while she is still incredibly powerful, it will take more effort for her to reach different stages," Washu tired to explain. "A lot more effort. It's all very complicated, but it is safe to say we're out of danger."

Relaxing, Ranma let another soft sigh escape her lips as she sagged more against Tenchi's chest. Her fingers uncurled, releasing Tenchi's shirt, before sliding down in total relaxation.

Realizing that the way he was seated was not the most comfortable position to be in, Tenchi shifted slightly, allowing blood to circulate into his legs. He was very careful not of jostle the sleeping redhead that he cradled in his arms and if anything, drew her closer. Settling into a more comfortable seat, Tenchi held Ranma close and watched over her as she slept.

The others in the room watched the scene briefly before retreating.

"So - now what?" Sailor Pluto asked plainly to the other two.

Washu thought a moment. She gave a measured look at the ghostly image of Tsunami beside her and then back at Sailor Pluto before answering. "I think... I think it would be best that we let the future take care of itself from now on."

------------

Summer had come.

After a short stay of a few weeks at home, where Ranma hung out with her sister, she decided to take Tenchi up on his offer of visiting him for awhile. Of course Happosai had insisted on coming along to look after his heir and to correct some of the "lack of judgment" that Ranma had exhibited. Which usually meant training.

It was the end of a long and grueling day of training. Ranma had barely managed to shed her tattered gi and clean herself off and make her way to the bath for a good, long soak. Her bath-mates were cool toward her when she was first invited to stay the summer, but as the weeks progressed they eventually warmed to her.

Ranma also found herself warming up to the girls as well, especially Ryoko.

As much as the other love interests in Tenchi's life resented it, it was obvious to all that Tenchi had made a choice. Along with his choice was that the fact he swore never to have anything to do with anyone if they tried to get between Ranma and himself. This had a definite effect on the his other two primary suitors. They both realized that the battle to be first in his heart was lost, now they vied for second. This meant that they were very well behaved around Ranma.

It also helped that Tenchi reminded them that Ranma was still extremely powerful. Not that Ranma would use her powers like that, but what they didn't know won't hurt anybody.

Ranma groaned loudly as she eased herself into the hot waters of the bath.

"Rough day?" Ryoko asked as she stretched in the bath, drink in hand.

Ranma nodded slowly as she settled in. "Yeah, Master Happosai was really rough today."

"I noticed," Ryoko said, "maybe you should just stick with sparring with me."

Ranma shook her head. "Nope. I wanna get this right."

Ryoko smirked at Ranma's stubbornness.

"What happened?" Ayeka asked, noticing the bruises on Ranma's arms and legs.

"Well... I told him what happened a few months ago... you know... the truth," Ranma explained hesitantly, "and he was slightly -er, irate with me."

"Oh?" Ryoko prompted while handing Ranma a small bottle of sake.

"Yeah," Ranma continued mournfully before realizing what was handed to her and shrugged her shoulders. "He said I was a disgrace because I didn't think before acting."

"That's harsh," Ryoko said while shifting in her spot.

"Harsh, but true," Ranma said. She paused to take a small sip of sake before continuing. "So every time he thinks I'm not putting enough thought into my actions during our lessons, I go for a swim."

"A swim?"

Ranma nodded and winced at the soreness that hadn't completely left her body. Who knew hitting water at that angle could hurt so damn much. "He uses that pipe of his and I find myself sailing into the middle of the lake... I must have gone for a swim eight or nine times today."

Ayeka giggled at Ranma's discomfort and quickly waved her hand as to mean she meant no offense. "Sorry," she offered, "but I have a hard time picturing that little old man being able to do that."

Ranma wilted further into the water as her aches eased some more. Ryoko on one side and Ayeka on the other. Her aches and pains began to wane. "I wouldn't mind it so much, but I swear that he tries to see how many times he can skip me across the water," Ranma mumbled.

"So where is Happosai now?" Ayeka asked.

"Last I saw, him and Tenchi's grandfather were sparring," Ranma answered. She then looked at Ayeka in the eye. "I think those two get along too well. Happosai is giving Tenchi's grandfather pointers in sword use and promised to help 'whip Tenchi into shape' while he was here."

"Ow," Ryoko remarked and fought the urge to go save Tenchi.

End of Summer.

Surrounded by all sides by mountains that isolated it from the rest of the world, the valley began its early decent into night as the waning sun lowered in the sky. A fairly stiff breeze worked its way through the narrow valley opening, creating the wind-born waves that lapped at the lake shoreline. Overhead the clouds streamed by, carried away to parts unknown by the winds. The birds in the trees chirped and squawked occasionally as they returned to their nests in preparation for the coming night.

The waning sun was barely peeking out from one of the surrounding mountains as a couple walked hand-in-hand, barefoot in the surf, and kicking up the waters as it covered their feet. Hair still wet from her recent swim, Ranma stopped to stare off into the darkening forest. The pigtailed boy by her side studied the contemplative look on the redhead for a moment.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

Ranma looked at Tenchi with affection clearly in her eyes. Seeing that affection mirrored in his made the moment all that more special.

"Yes," she answered. "Everything is prefect."

Seasons change, time moved on...

The very early morning light streamed through the window, illuminating the main room of the studio apartment. Ranma dragged herself out from the futon that she shared with Tenchi and made it to the bathroom where she dry-heaved for a while before managing to make it into the main room. Once there, she piled up some pillows and gingerly sat upon them and groaned.

_"At least I didn't wake Tenchi this time,"_ she thought. Considering how Ranma had been the last few mornings, she considered that a major accomplishment in itself. Between Tenchi's late nights finishing up school and Ranma getting him up early in the morning, he was a bit on the exhausted side.

Not that Ranma was feeling any better than he was.

Ranma leaned over and rested against another, larger, pillow and swallowed hard as if trying to force something down that wasn't even there to come up. Letting out a combination of a sigh and groan, she hugged the pillow underneath her before attempting to relax. Another wave of illness invaded her body and Ranma sighed and tried to relax through it.

Here she was: She had fought hordes of bio-weapons and a twisted version of herself and what was laying her out? Her stomach telling her that being pregnant isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

Ranma's musings on her condition was interrupted by the soft rattling of her front door. She smiled. You can set your watch to it. Since being reunited with her mother, Nodoka had been coming over in the morning and helping out. At first Ranma insisted that she was fine and was able to handle everything fine without any help...

... but that was before morning sickness reared its ugly head. Now Ranma had grown to appreciate having her mother around. Nodoka was making a habit of arriving early, helping clean up a bit, getting breakfast going, and doting over her daughter. At first Ranma didn't know what to make of her mother's behavior, but after a few days, Ranma realized that Nodoka was trying to make up for lost time.

Being apart from your child for seventeen-eighteen years will do that.

"Hey mom," Ranma said quietly from her place on the floor.

"Hello dear," Nodoka replied with concern. "How are you feeling?"

Ranma answered with a low groan.

Nodoka shook her head as she checked Ranma out. "Have you tried the crackers again?"

Ranma nodded. "Makes me feel worse."

"Well you stay put, I'll put some tea on. That always seems to help settle your stomach."

Ranma attempted to lug herself out of the low seat to join her mother in the small kitchen area, that was actually part of the same, large room and failed. Laid low by a sudden wave of nausea, Ranma found herself plopped down in the seat that she had just tried to rise from.

"Uhhhh..." Ranma groaned as she forced the room to stop tilting in odd angles.

Nodoka laid a hand on Ranma's shoulder. "I said, you stay put," she said in a motherly tone. "The tea will be ready in a few moments."

Ranma relaxed back into her pile of pillows and smiled. It was nice having her mother back in her life. Her friend from... somewhere else was right, getting her mother back was worth the risk of rejection. Her smile faded somewhat when she thought of her father. She sighed out in incomprehension of the man.

_"He already tried to rearrange some engagement between my unborn child and one of Kasumi's," _Ranma thought with a certain amount of tiredness. _"Luckily mom put an end to that idea before Kasumi caught wind of it..."_

She never could figure out how someone as good at martial arts as Genma is, could screw up in most everything outside of that field. _"I guess it's the price you pay for not expanding your horizons,"_ she concluded.

Brought out of her thoughts by Nodoka setting a cup of tea beside the pillows she was on, Ranma looked at her mother in thought. At first she wasn't sure, now she was. Now if her mother would agree...

Nodoka seemed to pick up Ranma's mood and gave her a quizzical look, but remained silent.

"Mom? I've been thinking," Ranma ventured.

"Yes dear?"

"You know I'm going to be leaving soon," Ranma notice the crestfallen look on Nodoka's face, "and I want to ask you... would you, er... come with me?"

Nodoka blinked at her child and then blinked again.

"You want me to come with you?" Nodoka asked in a guardedly hopeful way.

"Well... yes," Ranma said. "It's been nice having you around... helping me out..." Ranma paused to look at her mother in the eye and to give her a smile. "It would be a shame if you missed the birth of your first grandkid."

Ranma was embraced by Nodoka so quicky that she wasn't sure how her mother moved so fast. Mindful of the growing life that Ranma was carrying, Nodoka confined the hugging of her daughter to well above the belly. Ranma still let out a painful squeak as her over-sensitive breasts were squished by Nodoka's embrace.

"Sorry dear," Nodoka said as tears escaped the corners of her eyes. "It's just that..."

"It's okay mom," Ranma said as she reclaimed her seat and took another sip of tea. The tea was helping. She noticed an odd look on her mother's face. "What's wrong?"

"It's more than I deserve," Nodoka worked out between sniffles. "I mean, after I let that man take you and that stupid pledge and-"

"Mom."

"Yes."

"It's all right."

Ranma suffered through another slightly painful hug from her mother.

"Ack!"

Years pass...

The First Empress of Jurai strode through the hall of the palace with her three year old on her hip. Though there were nannies and other such things that were easily available for someone in her position, Ranma refused to surrender any of the 'motherly' responsibilities onto anyone else. The three year old was at a stage that was both irritating and precious.

"Why?" the small girl asked for the umpteenth time.

"Because your grandmother is getting married today," the redhead answered.

"Why?"

"Because she loves Katsuhito," Ranma replied.

"Why?"

Ranma sighed. "Just wait until you're older."

To distract her daughter from anymore questions, Ranma goosed her eliciting a loud belly laugh from the child. Ranma smiled at this. After the giggle fit was over with, Ranma rubbed her slightly sore wrists.

"Mom!" came a call from behind. Ranma turned to face her eldest.

"I'm glad to see that you are ready, Akiko," Ranma said with a hint of relief. She had feared that her teenage-looking daughter had went back to sleep - again.

"Was there any doubt?" the crimsoned haired youth asked smartly, with a trace of cockiness.

Ranma gave her daughter a measured look. "Where are your brothers?" she asked while looking over Akiko's shoulder.

"They went on ahead," Akiko replied as she fell in step beside her mother. "Where's Mother Ryoko?"

"Right here," the answer popped into existence beside the young woman, causing her to like out a very girly 'eep'.

Ranma laughed out loud as her oldest daughter pouted at her and the new arrival. "Mother Ryoko," Akiko said in indignation. "Don't do that!"

Ryoko, Second Empress of Jurai, giggled at Akiko's exasperation. Ryoko opened her mouth to say something more when she was bulldozed from behind by an over enthusiastic ten year old.

"Mommy!" the little powerhouse of a boy gushed as he clung to his cyan-haired mother.

Ryoko quickly compensated for the extra weight that had grabbed her around the waist without staggering - she instead floated. "Ryu, what have I told you about surprising me like that?"

Akiko smirked at Ryoko's reaction at being surprised as the pigtailed little boy with dark blue hair giggled mischievously. Ryoko rolled her eyes in response. "Kids."

Ranma smiled in answer to Ryoko's comment.

"Hello dears," Nodoka greeted as she approached the group of Masaki women.

"Hey mom," Ranma replied while absently rubbing her wrist again, "ready for the big day?"

Ranma's mother not only was still alive due to the advanced medical and environmental conditions on Jurai, but was preparing to remarry. After Genma passed away - never seeing the dream of the schools joining - Nodoka mourned for what she thought was a proper amount of time - about eight years - before her new husband literally swept her off her feet.

"Is something wrong with your hands, dear?" Nodoka asked with a knowing look. "You been rubbing them."

"Ah... hee, hee," Ranma said with a small blush. Being mindful of young ears, Ranma gathered her wits. "Nothing mom, just getting tired of toting Michiko here around."

"Why?" the small girl asked.

Ranma sighed as Nodoka giggled at Ranma's obvious discomfort. The ropes had left marks that faded overnight and the phantom sensations of their passing in their wake causing Ranma to rub her wrists. Nodoka had long learned about her daughters bedroom antics from Ranma herself - getting tipsy during a state visit wasn't very smart - and just shook her head.

"Whatever makes you happy dear," Nodoka said while smiling at the still blushing Ranma.

The second wife of Tenchi, Ryoko, found it almost comical that the most powerful being ever created would be such a submissive in the sack. Ranma liked it that way, for her it was nice to be not in control in a safe way - with people you trusted. For Ranma, her submissive role was like finding a balance in her life and she was happy with it.

And none of Ranma's other bedmates complained either.

"Ladies," a distinguished voice said from further up the hallway, drawing attention away from the current topic. Ranma's smile broadened as did Ryoko's.

"Tenchi," the two chanted as one, each moved up to him and took their traditional spots beside their husband.

Time moved on...

She was old. Old as she was ever going to get in this life.

Not that she minded.

Between modern medicine and her natural Senshi abilities, Ranma had managed to live nearly one hundred and fifty thousand years. Her outward appearance hadn't changed much, but inwardly. She smiled to herself as she sensed the presence of her children and grandchildren and great great-many-times over grandchildren near by. She breathed a ragged breath, hoping to see Tenchi and Ryoko on the other side. She drew another breath, one that didn't really make it to her lungs. She then saw a light in her minds eye...

... she knew it was time to go.

Billions of years, millions of lifetimes lived...

Ranma was alone. Had been alone for... how long? Ranma didn't know, when there was no such thing as time anymore, what did it matter?

Yet Ranma wasn't really alone. Ranma had sensed the other for a long time now. Always out of sight, but ever present, Ranma pondered what this other could be. After a while, Ranma didn't even think about it anymore, it just became something in the background. Something to ignore.

She - or was it he? - that didn't matter anymore either - the thing that was once Ranma so many eons ago floated and watched - sensed as the last universe in creation collapsed upon itself. All of the seemingly countless universes were condensed into, what seemed to Ranma, pin-pricks that hung around Ranma like particles floating free in an invisible ocean. Each universe waited patiently for Ranma.

Ranma studied every one of them. It didn't take long, for each was now a part of her. She was able to feel the seeming anticipation that all of creation had. On instinct, she knew what to do. One by one and in groups, Ranma began the task of gathering the small dots of universes, bringing them together.

How long did it take? When time is meaningless, what does it matter? In an instant that lasted forever, Ranma gathered the last of the universes together in herself/himself(?) and prepared. In a womb of Ranma's own making, she/he brought everything together as darkness closed over Ranma, and in one brief moment there was truly a nothingness like none had ever seen. If Ranma still had a breath to hold, Ranma would have done that.

Then something touched Ranma, that something that was ever present, but not seeable. It touched Ranma and the seed of tomorrows fluctuated. Reaching out, Ranma joined with this other, lonely soul and became one with it for one brief instant. Ranma held on to everything that once was and concentrated.

In an instantaneous flash of light, space/time unfolded itself. Warping and shattering into an infinite number of realities. In Ranma's eye, it appeared as if fireworks were going off, each burst being a universe being made. For Ranma, it was like the end of a long, cold night as she/he basked in the warmth of creation reborn.

The other separated from Ranma and smiled.

Ranma wasn't alone anymore.

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- End -

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Howdy!

Well, as they say "stick a fork in it, it's done".

So it went out with a bang... even if it was a 'big bang'.

After almost two years, this "one shot" (ha-ha) is finally completed. I have had a few people write to me and ask if they could continue this, I rather they not. I do have several back stories in the works and I would like to keep my options open at this point.

Right now, I would like to thank those of you that suffered through this to the end, those who bothered to take the time to leave a review, and especially those that left helpful ones. Believe me, I needed all the help I could get my hands on.

I still intend on going back and cleaning up my earlier chapters, but that will be a "back burner" project and I will probably post the corrections all at once instead of individually. I think my misspellings and misuse of some words in those earlier chapters are now legendary.

I hoped everyone found this at least a "good yarn" and enjoyed reading it.

For now, I'm going to focus on other projects.

Thanks for reading.

p

**B**

_I_


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